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Watching the Victoria Cross Heroes series on TV this week the second programme featured Commander Loftus William Jones RN who won his VC at Jutland. This was of particular interest to me as I have the medals of his elder brother Captain Lewis Tobias Loftus Jones RN.



The QSA is named to Lieut. L.T.L. Jones R.N. H.M.S. Thrush and the BWM to Capt. L.T.L. Jones R.N.

HMS Thrush was a 1st Class Gunboat commissioned at Simonstown 10 January 1900 for the Cape Station. It weighed 805 tons and carried 6x4 inch guns and 2x3 pounder guns. Excluding medals returned unissued 15 two clasp QSAs and 65 no clasp QSAs were issued to HMS Thrush. Jones was second in command to Lieut. Commander W.H. D'Oyly.

Lewis Tobias Loftus Jones was born in Ryde 25 September 1878, the son of Admiral Loftus Francis Jones and Gertrude (nee Gray) of Petersfield, Hampshire. Commissioned sub lieutenant April 1898. Promoted lieutenant 1 July 1900. He led a prize crew that boarded SS Sabine 16 February 1900 and brought it into Port Elizabeth. However, the authorities cleared SS Sabine and the prize crew were returned to HMS Thrush. Promoted commander 30 June 1913. Served during the Great War only in Britain (not entitled to a Victory Medal). Appointed acting Captain of the battleship HMS Venerable 19 June 1918. Retired with the rank of captain 1 December 1924. Married Constance Shackled and had a daughter Lettice. Died at Horsham between July and September 1952 aged 72.

Captain Jones’s brother, Commander Loftus William Jones, was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for gallantry at the Battle of Jutland 31 May 1916.
V.C. London Gazette 6.3.1917 Commander Loftus William Jones, R.N. (killed in action)
'On the afternoon of the 31st May, 1916, during the Battle of Jutland, Commander Jones in H.M.S. "Shark," Torpedo Boat Destroyer, led a division of Destroyers to attack the enemy Battle Cruiser Squadron. In the course of this attack a shell hit the "Shark's" bridge, putting the steering gear out of order, and very shortly afterwards another shell disabled the main engines, leaving the vessel helpless. The Commanding Officer of another Destroyer, seeing the "Shark's" plight, came between her and the enemy and offered assistance, but was warned by Commander Jones not to run the risk of being almost certainly sunk in trying to help him. Commander Jones, though wounded in the leg, went aft to help connect and man the after wheel. Meanwhile the forecastle gun with its crew had been blown away, and the same fate soon afterwards befell the after gun and crew. Commander Jones then went to the midship and only remaining gun, and personally assisted in keeping it in action. All this time the "Shark" was subjected to very heavy fire from enemy light cruisers and destroyers at short range. The gun's crew of the midship gun was reduced to three, of whom an Able Seaman was soon badly wounded in the leg. A few minutes later Commander Jones was hit by a shell, which took off his leg above the knee, but he continued to give orders to his gun's crew, while a Chief Stoker improvised a tourniquet round his thigh. Noticing that the Ensign was not properly hoisted, he gave orders for another to be hoisted. Soon afterwards, seeing that the ship could not survive much longer, and as a German Destroyer was closing, he gave orders for the surviving members of the crew to put on lifebelts. Almost immediately after this order had been given, the "Shark" was struck by a torpedo and sank. Commander Jones was unfortunately not amongst the few survivors from the "Shark," who were picked up by a neutral vessel in the night.'