Originally ordered for Greece as Lambros Katsonis, named for a Greek privateer who later served under the Russian flag, Chester entered Royal Navy service only weeks before Jutland. The cruiser suffered seventeen heavy shell hits while scouting ahead of the Third Battle Cruiser Squadron, with twenty-nine men killed and forty-nine wounded as she faced four German ships of roughly comparable size. Jack Cornwell's citation records how he remained at his exposed gun position despite mortal wounds and the loss of the rest of its crew. His death shows the human cost of placing lightly protected cruiser gun crews ahead of the battlecruisers.
Chapter · 31:55-34:51
HMS Chester, Jutland, and Jack Cornwell's last stand
Chester's first major action brought seventeen heavy shell hits and the conduct for which sixteen-year-old Jack Cornwell received the Victoria Cross.