He was just months out of school when he found himself fighting in the greatest naval battle of the First World War.

%image(14825509, type="article-full", alt="The Battle of Jutland, in which more than 8,500 men died, is being remembered as "the battle that won the war. Photo: National Museum of the Royal Navy/PA")

Cuthbert Hill, a former pupil at Gresham's, was serving as a midshipman on board the battlecruiser HMS Invincible at the Battle of Jutland.

In the thick of the fighting, she was struck by a salvo of German shells, which ignited her magazines, causing an explosion which sent her to the bottom. Of the 1,031 men on board, 1,025 were killed. Among them was Hill.

Now, 100 years on, the Old Greshamian is to be a focus of national commemorations to mark the centenary of the battle.

The Imperial War Museums, which is co-ordinating the events, has announced that Gresham's School, Holt, will mark the anniversary with an illustrated talk in honour of Hill later this month, while a lantern will be lit in his memory.

The event will also commemorate the other 114 former pupils and staff killed in the conflict, but has been designated as part of the country's official national commemorations for Jutland, which was fought in the North Sea, on May 31, 1916.

Hill, a pupil at Gresham's School from 1907 to 1915, was among 8,000 British and German sailors killed in the battle, a clash to gain naval supremacy.

He had passed into the Navy by special late entry and visited the school just before Jutland. In a letter to his mother Mary just after the battle, his elder brother Laurie said they should be 'proud for all time if 'Cuthie' has given his life for his country'.

Weeks later, another brother, Mark, was killed at the Battle of the Somme.

Simon Kinder, Gresham's School Deputy Head, said: 'Every Old Greshamian will be remembered on the centenary of their death to ensure that the memory of the sacrifice they made for our country lives on.'

The free commemorative event will take place on May 25.