Skip to main content
Mountbatten Medallic History of Great Britain and the Sea Medal: HMS Queen Elizabeth
Mountbatten Medallic History of Great Britain and the Sea Medal: HMS Queen Elizabeth
Mountbatten Medallic History of Great Britain and the Sea Medal: HMS Queen Elizabeth
Mountbatten Medallic History of Great Britain and the Sea Medal: HMS Queen Elizabeth

Mountbatten Medallic History of Great Britain and the Sea Medal: HMS Queen Elizabeth

Associated (Frogmore House, Windsor, England, 1900 - 1979)
DateMay 2004
Object NameMedal
MediumSterling Silver
ClassificationsMedals
LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub
Object numberABDMS072500.80
About MeIn 1915, ten years after the advent of the Dreadnought, the first of a class of five new battleships was completed at Portsmouth Dockyard. She was named the Queen Elizabeth, and she and her sisters, the Warspite, Valiant, Barham and Malaya are generally held to have been the finest of their type ever to have used their guns in war.

The Queen Elizabeth was oil fired. She mounted on her quarter-deck a polished shovel inscribed 'Lest we Forget' - a reminder of the debt the Navy had owed to coal and the labour its use had entailed. She was of 27,000 tons displacement, carried eight 15-inch guns, sixteen 6-inch guns, and smaller weapons, including an anti-aircraft armament. A speed of 25 knots, derived from her powerful turbines, made her the equal in this respect of the fast battle cruisers.

The ship first fired her main armament at Turkish positions in the Dardanelles. Later she became the flagship of Sir David Beatty when be took command of the Grand Fleet. All her sister ships fought notably at Jutland as the 5th Battle Squadron. In the Second World War the Queen Elizabeth was for a time the Flagship of Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham in the Mediterranean. She ended her active career by taking part in operations against the Japanese in the Far East. By that time she had been extensively rebuilt, but she was as efficient as ever. She was not broken up until 1948, after over 30 years of invaluable service.

The Mountbatten Medallic History of Great Britain and the Sea, John Pinches Medallists Ltd.