21 Facts About Jack Cornwell

John "Jack" Travers Cornwell was born as the third child of a working-class family at Clyde Place, Leyton, Essex.

Jack Cornwell's parents were Eli and Lily Cornwell; he had a sister and three brothers, as well as two half-siblings from his father's previous marriage.

Jack Cornwell left Walton Road School at the standard age of 14.

In October 1915, Jack Cornwell gave up his job as a delivery boy and enlisted in the Royal Navy without his father's permission.

Jack Cornwell carried out his basic training at HMS Vivid Keyham Naval Barracks in Plymouth, and received further training as a Sight Setter or Gun Layer and became Boy Seaman First Class.

On Easter Monday 1916, Jack Cornwell left for Rosyth, Scotland, to join his assignment in the navy.

The shielded 5.5-inch gun mounting where Jack Cornwell was serving as a sight-setter was affected by at least four nearby hits.

Jack Cornwell died shortly before 8:00am on the morning of 2 June 1916, before his mother could arrive at the hospital.

The instance of devotion to duty by Boy John Travers Jack Cornwell who was mortally wounded early in the action, but nevertheless remained standing alone at a most exposed post, quietly awaiting orders till the end of the action, with the gun's crew dead and wounded around him.

Jack Cornwell was initially buried in a common grave in Manor Park Cemetery, London, although his body was exhumed on 29 July 1916 at which he was reburied with full military honours in the same cemetery.

Jack Cornwell's age was under sixteen and a half years.

On 16 November 1916, Jack Cornwell's mother received the Victoria Cross from King George V at Buckingham Palace.

Court painter Frank O Salisbury made a portrait of Jack Cornwell, using his brother Ernest as a model, depicting him standing in his post.

The impoverished Alice Jack Cornwell died at the age of 48 on 31 October 1919, at 745 Commercial Road in Stepney, in rooms she was forced to take when her son's memorial fund refused financial aid.

Camp Jack Cornwell, established in 1925 as the headquarters for Western Australian Sea Scouts is situated at Pelican Point on the Swan River near Perth.

Jack Cornwell is remembered by the Sea Cadet Corps, Army Cadet Force and Air Training Corps, who each have a unit based in the UK's first and only Tri-Service Cadet building, named The Cornwell VC Cadet Centre, on Vicarage Lane in East Ham.

In 2003, the Cadets suggested commemorating him by renaming a school in Leyton after him; when Jack Cornwell attended the school it was known as Farmer Road School, and it is named George Mitchell School, after another former pupil, George Allan Mitchell, who won a VC in Italy during the Second World War.

Jack Cornwell is remembered by Royal Navy Combined Cadet Force divisions, such as the RN CCF section at Whitgift School, Croydon, which is named the "Cornwell" division in his honour.

In Jack Cornwell Street there is a public house named The Victoria Cross to commemorate his medal.

In September 2006, Jack Cornwell VC featured on one of a series of Royal Mail postage stamps marking the 150th anniversary of the Victoria Cross.

Mount Jack Cornwell is a peak in the High Rock Range in British Columbia, part of the Canadian Rockies, which was named in his honour in 1918.