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The Battle of Jutland was a naval battle fought between the Royal Navy and the German High Seas Fleet on 31 May and 1 June 1916 in the North Sea near Jutland in Denmark. It was the largest naval battle of the the war. The German plan was to use their fast scouting group of battlecruisers to draw Vice-Admiral Beatty’s battlecruiser  squadron onto the main German fleet and there, destroy them. The two opposing forces met on the afternoon of 31st May 1916. A running battle ensued, during which the Royal Navy lost two battlecruisers, until the main German fleet was seen.  At this point Beatty’s battlecruiser squadron turned back and brought the pursuing German ships towards the main British fleet of Admiral Jellicoe. That night these two main fleets of 250 ships engaged each other twice before the Germans, recognising that they were outnumbered, broke off the engagement and returned to port. Both sides claimed victory. The British lost more ships (14) and three time as many sailors (6,000), but the Germans never brought out their main fleet again, preferring to concentrate on submarine warfare. Over 500 of those who were killed were men from London.

HMS Southampton was a Town class cruiser and flagship of the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron which was attached to Beatty’s battlecruiser fleet at the Battle of Jutland. She was the first to spot enemy ships in the afternoon and that evening, when Beatty’s ships had drawn the ships of the German High Seas Fleet on to Jellicoe’s Grand Fleet, the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron met the German 4th Scouting Group of five cruisers head on. During this short but fierce action, HMS Southampton sank the German cruiser SMS Frauenlob with one of her torpedoes but did not emerge unscathed. She was hit by eighteen shells and sustained eighty casualties. Particularly hard hit were her midship gun crews and searchlight crews and at one stage a number of fires on board threatened to blow the ship sky high. But the flames were doused and HMS Southampton, after emergency repairs to holes below the waterline, made it back to Rosyth. Among those killed in this action was Joseph Barnes.