IT IS exactly one hundred years ago to the day that 100,000 men onboard some 250 naval vessels came together to exchange blows in what would be the biggest naval battle of the First World War.

The Battle of Jutland off Denmark’s North Sea coast on May 31, 1916, would claim the lives of some 8,000 men – including that of Marchwood sailor William George Walter Blake.

Born on February 28, 1874 as one of nine children born to Vincent and Charlotte Blake of Tavells Lane, Marchwood, William Blake joined the Royal Navy aged 23 in October 1897, signing on for 12 years service at Portsmouth.

According to his records his occupation was listed as blacksmith which is an artificer branch of the Royal Navy for skilled craftsman and artisans.

His first ship he was assigned to was the Duke of Wellington an elderly harbour ship used for training purposes. William served as a blacksmith on 11 ships in his 12 year service and throughout his character was always recorded as “very good”. He re-enlisted on the October 15, 1909 for a further 12 year engagement and as Great Britain prepared to join the First World War.

In August 1914, William was assigned to the crew of the HMS Invincible – a fast, big gunned, but slightly armoured battlecruiser.

Shortly after this on August 28, 1914, Invincible was in action at the Battle of Heligoland Bight where, as part of a fleet of battlecruisers under Admiral Beatty’s command, she prevented elements of the German High Seas fleet entering the North Sea.

The next major action of the Invincible was at Battle of the Falklands Islands on December 8, where the German cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were sunk.

But it was the final and most major battle of HMS Invincible’s service career at the Battle of Jutland that would claim the lives of William and countless others. During the battle, Invincible was hit by the German Battlecruisers Lutzow and Derfflinger and sank in 90 seconds leaving only six survivors. William was killed on that day aged 42 and as he was unmarried, he left no wife or dependants.

William Blake was posthumously awarded the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal for his service during the war but in the years that followed both of the medals were mislaid. However a fascinating turn of events saw William Blake’s family reunited with the lost honours.

In 1975 a young American sailor called Vincent Andrews serving aboard the USS Guadalcanal docked at Bremerhaven in Germany. The ship was open for tours and Vincent guided a German family around who as a mark of thanks, took him home and for a traditional German feast. At the dinner the grandfather of the family handed Vincent some interesting items for him to keep, one of these being a WW1 war medal belong to William GW Blake, Blacksmith, RN 341730.

This sparked a desire in Vincent that stretched almost 40 years as he attempted to return this medal to the family of William and put a face to the man. Ironically Vincent came within a couple of miles of Marchwood a year after he was given the medal as in 1976 his ship docked at Southampton. After Vincent had done research on William’s war record, tracing his ancestors proved more difficult.

Luckily the advent of the internet and ancestry websites allowed Vincent to contact William’s relative Tracey Barnett last year as she had William Blake in her family tree. Tracey is a daughter-in-law to Peggy Barnett (nee Blake) and Peggy’s grandfather Sydney Blake was one of William’s brothers. Luckily a great deal of the Blake family history had been researched by the late David Blake, a cousin to Peggy, and it was this information that enabled a link to be bridged across the Atlantic allowing Vincent to return the medal back to the village.

Luckily John Blake, another of Peggy’s cousins, had a photo of William from a naval football team that could be sent to Vincent letting him put a face to a fellow sailor, one who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the First World War.

The story behind the recovery of William’s Allied Victory Medal is just as remarkable, although this time the medal hadn’t strayed so far as it was eventually relocated in Marchwood.

The fate of this particular medal began when Michael Blake, cousin to Peggy, David and John Blake, was playing solders at the back of the Tom Blake’s farm (Peggy’s father) in the 1950s. Using William’s medals as boys do, he lost the Allied Victory medal and couldn’t find it. For over 30 years the medal lay lost and undiscovered, but not forgotten. The remarkable tale then fast forwards to 1986 when local villager, Ivor lmms, was out with his metal detector up at Bowmoor on the ride at the back of the farm when he came across the lost medal. Seeing the name Blake on the medal rim he very kindly returned it to John Blake for safe keeping.

With both the medals now safely back in the hands of William’s family, the lucky discovery and return of the Allied War Medal brought to a pleasing conclusion to a family mystery that began when it looked like the medal would be lost following a harmless childhood playtime accident.

Although also safe, the history behind William’s British War Medal, however, still elude a satisfying resolution as the answers as to how it came to be in the possession of a German in Bremerhaven still remain a mystery.