John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe

Admiral of the Fleet John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, was a Royal Navy officer. He fought in the Anglo-Egyptian War and the Boxer Rebellion and commanded the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 during the First World War. His handling of the fleet at that battle was controversial. Jellicoe made no serious mistakes and the German High Seas Fleet retreated to port, at a time when defeat would have been catastrophic for Britain, but the public was disappointed that the Royal Navy had not won a more dramatic victory given that they outnumbered the enemy. Jellicoe later served as First Sea Lord, overseeing the expansion of the Naval Staff at the Admiralty and the introduction of convoys, but was relieved at the end of 1917. He also served as the governor-general of New Zealand in the early 1920s.

5 December 1859

Born on the same birth day (5 December): Ashia Hansen • Clyde Cessna • Danny Wicks • Ellis Parker Butler • Fred Rutten • Gareth McAuley • Gwen Lister • Hilary Koprowski • Jack Russell (musician) • Jurrell Casey • Józef Piłsudski • Nunnally Johnson • Paula Patton • Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer • Yury Vlasov

Born in the same month (December 1859): Georges Seurat • Gustave Kahn • L. L. Zamenhof • Paul César Helleu • Venustiano Carranza • William Stephens (American politician)