Lives of the First World War

Medals, WW1, Royal Navy, Jutland Casualty Group and Personal Signed Condolence Card from Neville Chamberlain, WW1, 1914-1915 Star Trio/original silk riboons (M.1704. J.H. Nicholas, E.R.Cl.3, RN) - HMS Queen Mary, memorial death plaque with card envelope and official condolence slip in original manilla envelope addressed to his sister, Mrs Hilda Dorothea Higgins, Handsworth, Birmingham, memorial scroll in original card transmission tube, addressed to his sister as above, original portrait photograph in uniform, condolence card from the City of Birmingham signed by the then Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, Neville and Anne Chamberlain (later British Prime Minister 1937-1940), and dated 1916, research and file of historical notes on the Battle of Jutland, May 31st, 1916. John Harold Nicholson was born a native of Birmingham in 1888. He enlisted in the Royal Navy on March 15th, 1910 and served as an electrical artificer on various war ships, commencing duties on Britain's newest and largest Dreadnought class battle cruiser, HMS Queen Mary on September 9th, 1913. The infamous and ultimately indecisive Battle of Jutland between one-hundred and fifty-nine ships of the Royal Navy's Grand Fleeet and only ninety-nine of the German Kriegsmarine took place in the Danish waters of Jutland on May 31st and the early hours of June 1st, 1916. The Queen Mary, pride of Vice-Admiral Beatty's fleet from Rosythe, was engaged by two German ships and bit by seven shells. Without warning a catastrophic explosion occurred on the Queen Mary, which split in two and sank within four minutes with the loss of 1,266 men. As a native of Birmingham a signed condolence card from the city's mayoral family was sent to Nicholas's sister.

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