Here’s a signed photograph (measuring 8 5/8” X 4 3/4”) of John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, as Admiral of the Fleet together with a postcard featuring Admiral Sir John Jellicoe.

Beneath Jellicoe’s image on the postcard are the words:

“Hats off to the Flag we all love and adore,
And give it a mighty great cheer,
For with gallant Commanders like this to the fore –
Old England has nothing to fear.”

John Rushworth Jellicoe (1859–1935) was Britain’s most well known Admiral at the start of WWI. Born on 5 December 1859 in Southhampton, he joined the Royal Navy in 1872 and served in the Egyptian War of 1882. In the year prior to WWI Jellicoe served as Director of Naval Ordnance from 1905–7, and controller of the Navy from 1908–10. Churchill, then the First Lord of the Admiralty, appointed Jellicoe second-in-command of the Grand Fleet in November 1911.

Jellicoe was Admiral Fisher’s long-standing choice to lead the Grand Fleet in wartime, a long time assistant of Fisher’s in the modernisation of the navy, and was accordingly appointed its commander on 4 August 1914, replacing Sir George Callaghan.

In the early 1920s Jellicoe was the Governor-General of New Zealand.

Item #471