Jellicoe, Admiral Earl

John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe (1859 to 1935), was the Royal Navy admiral who commanded the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May to 1 June 1916, the largest naval engagement of the First World War, fought against the German High Seas Fleet in the North Sea. Winston Churchill noted that Jellicoe was the only man who could have lost the war in an afternoon. He later served as First Sea Lord and as Governor-General of New Zealand from 1920 to 1924. His cautious tactics at Jutland remain debated.