A SOUVENIR 'JOLLY ROGER' FROM H.M. SUBMARINE UTMOST, CIRCA 1942
the black cotton field with skull and crossbones flanked by success emblems duplicated both sides -- 25 x 29in. (63.5 x 73.5cm.)

Provenance: T.W. Lilley, Acting Leading Stoker aboard Utmost 1940-1942, and thence by descent.

Launched by Vickers Armstrong in April 1940 and commissioned that August, once some initial teething troubles had been resolved, Utmost quickly proved herself as one of the RN's more effective submarines. As her 'Jolly Roger' testifies, in her brief career she sank seven Axis merchantmen, damaged three and also damaged the Italian Cruiser Trieste. She was returning to Malta in November 1942 from a successful patrol when she was located and sunk by the Italian torpedo boat Groppo with the loss of all hands.

Thomas William Lilley (1916-1974) joined Utmost as his first submarine. He remained aboard until April 1942 when he was sent ashore for a Petty Officers' course. It seems this Jolly Roger was made by the signalman and presented to him on his departure. Two other souvenir examples from Utmost are held at the Royal Navy Museum, Gosport.

Officially frowned on, the Jolly Roger was universally taken up by submariners of all nations who had been "slandered" as Pirates by Sir Arthur Wilson, First Sea Lord in World War One, who stated that submarines were "underhanded, unfair, and damned un-English", and that he would convince the Admiralty to have the crews of enemy submarines captured during wartime hanged as pirates. Consequently they were flown by returning crews to list their "kills": the horizontal bars represent torpedo strikes - white for merchant and red for naval; the swords are for involvement in Special Forces Operations (dropping/collecting agents); the star for a target destroyed by gunfire, and the life buoy for rescuing a downed air crew.