Remembering Jutland: A sailor honours a stoker
One of the youngest sailors at RNAS Culdrose is on her way to Scotland to commemorate one of the biggest sea battle of the First World War.
Alicia Blackledge's great great grandfather was a stoker aboard HMS Chester, one of the many ships that took on the Imperial German fleet in the Battle of Jutland 100 years ago.
In 1916, while the Tommies in the trenches faced the horrors of shelling, poison gas, and marching towards the enemy machine guns, the Royal Navy was taking a pounding from the Imperial German Navy in the North Sea.
Hubert Reynolds was a young stoker in the thick of the action aboard HMS Chester.
HMS Chester was badly damaged, but managed to return to the fleet's base at Scapa Flow where there's to be a centenary commemoration on 31 May.
Hubert Reynolds' great great granddaughter will be at that service. Alicia Blackledge is proud of her ancestor. More than that, she feels like she is following in his footsteps because she is in the Navy too.
Alicia Blackledge will be on board HMS Bulwark as it makes its way north to Scapa Flow, where a hundred years ago, scores of other ships fought one of the biggest battles of the First World War.