AN Askam life lost in the Battle of Jutland 100 years ago is to be remembered with a candle and a tree. 

Today, Tuesday, May 31, at 6.30pm a candle will be lit at the village war memorial for 37-year-old William Duncan who was killed in the sinking of the destroyer HMS Shark. 

He is the latest serviceman to be specially commemorated on the centenary of his death by members of Askam and Ireleth Local History Group. 

The group has also made a donation to have a tree named in the Jutland sailor’s memory at a new memorial woodland. 

Duncan, whose brother John Duncan, lived at 141 Sharp Street, Askam, was an engine room artificer 4th class.

The Barrow Guardian, on June 10, noted: “He was an engineer and had worked in South Africa, America and Australia but joined the navy six or seven months ago.” 

He had been born in Barrow on February 14 in 1879 and had trained on the naval shore base at HMS Pembroke II before a first sea posting to HMS Hecla, a support ship to destroyers. 

At the Battle of Jutland he was a crew member on HMS Shark - an Acasta-class destroyer built in 1912 by Swan Hunter at Wallsend on the North East coast. 

At 6pm on May 31 it led an unsuccessful torpedo attack by the 4th Destroyer Flotilla on the German 2nd Scouting Group. 

Shark’s forecastle gun was completely blown away and soon its four onch gun was destroyed and the bridge wrecked. 

The ship’s commander, Cpt Loftus Jones, and three crewmen continued working the midship gun – the only one still in operation. 

They took on the German destroyers and sank V48. 

As the battle raged, Jones lost a leg and just before 7pm ordered the ship to be abandoned. 

Around 30 men got away on rafts, including the mortally wounded Cpt Jones. 

A Danish ship called SS Vidar pocked up seven survivors but one died soon afterwards. 

At 7pm the destroyer was sunk by a torpedo from the German torpedo boat S84. 

Captain Jones was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for his outstanding gallantry. 

The Askam sailor, like most of his comrades, has no known graves and is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial. 

William Duncan is also named on the Askam war memorial and on a plaque in St Peter’s Church, Ireleth. 

The tree dedicated to his memory is part of a national project set up by the Woodland Trust and the Royal naval Association. 

It is in Langley Vale Wood, near Epsom, Surrey. 

This area was part of Tadworth Camp, where soldiers trained for the First World War. 

Other memorial woods are being set up in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. 

A spokesman for the woodland project said: “These woods will stand in recognition of the cost paid by our ancestors and our environment and the tree you have dedicated will form part of a growing thank you to those who lived and died during the war.” 

You can find out more about the project on the website at woodlandtrust,org.uk/fww