5 Pounds - Elizabeth II Jack Cornwell VC, Gold Proof

Jack Cornwell was sixteen years old when he stood at his post aboard HMS Chester during the Battle of Jutland in May 1916, mortally wounded and surrounded by dead crewmates, waiting for firing orders that never came. He died two days later. The Victoria Cross awarded posthumously made him one of the youngest recipients in the decoration's history, and his story was aggressively promoted by the wartime government as a recruiting and morale tool — his funeral cortège drew enormous crowds through East London.

This coin marks the centenary of Jutland, Britain's largest naval engagement of the First World War, in which fourteen British ships were lost.