A REMARKABLE letter has survived from the captain who took the Barrow built HMS Princess Royal into action at the Battle of Jutland.

Writing to a friend at Pennington he describes being appointed as a Companion of the Order of the Bath but wishing the biggest naval encounter of the First World War had been more decisive.

The letter from Walter "Tich" Cowan to Brig-Gen Richard Boileau Gaisford is part of the rich and varied collection of items held by Cumbria Archive and Local Studies Library at Ramsden Square, Barrow.

Captain Cowan, later a naval admiral and an army colonel, wrote: "I'd have been more happy at getting the C.B. had it been for a more complete and decisive job which, please God, we shall make of it next time if we get such a good chance again."

His ship was damaged in the battle a century ago but only took a few weeks to repair.

It had cost just over £2m, with full armament, when it was was commissioned into Royal Naval service on November 14 in 1912.

Cowan is the kind of character they make movies about.

He became a prisoner of war at the age of 72 and was the oldest British serviceman on active duty in the Second World War.

Born in Wales in 1871, he was given command of the Zealandia at the start of the First World War and then took over the new Princess Royal at Barrow.

By 1923 he was a vice-admiral and in the Second World War took the reduced rank of commander to train commandos how to handle small boats.

He served in North Africa and was captured on May 27 in 1942 - after taking on an Italian tank crew armed only with a revolver.

Cowan was released in a prisoner swop in 1943 and fought as a commando in Italy the next year - winning a bar to his Distinguished Service Order.

After the war he became colonel of the 18th King Edward VII's Own in India and died, aged 84, in February 1956.

His Pennington friend lived at Conynger Hurst and died, aged 70, in September 1924.

His mother was from the Yarker family of Ulverston.

Among his military distinctions was the Order of the Bath and the Order of St Michael and St George.

Research by Barrow's Rod White has found details of two more sailors with Furness links to have died in the Battle of Jutland.

Both men are commemorated on family headstones in Barrow Cemetery and named on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial for sailors with no known graves.

Albert Fleetwood was an engineroom artificer 4th class, No. M/13614, who served on the armoured cruiser HMS Black Prince.

It was battered by up to six German ships and hit at least a dozen times before sinking in just 15 minutes with the loss of 857 lives.

The 1911 census shows he was born at Preston but living at 26 Telford Street, Barrow, as an apprentice turner.

He joined the Royal Navy on May 26 in 1915 and his parents were Frederick and Ellen.

James Fagence was a chief stoker and lost his life on HMS Queen Mary which exploded after being hit by shells from the German battlecruiser Derfflinger. A total of 1,266 died.

The wreck was discovered in 1991 on the floor of the North Sea.

The 1911 census shows that he was then aged 46 and had been born at Horsley, Surrey but was living at 136 Anson Street, Barrow.

His wife Sarah died, aged 44, in February 1914.

He had first joined the Royal Navy, aged just 12, in 1885 and was pensioned off in 1907 - only to rejoin in September 1914 as a crew member of the Queen Mary.