On August 23, 1880, he was promoted lieutenant, and two years afterwards, as a lieutenant on board the “Agincourt,” he served in the Egyptian War. He was awarded the Egyptian medal and the Khedive’s bronze star. On his return to England, in the following year, he studied at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, where he won the special £80 prize for gunnery lieutenants. In May, 1886, while serving on board the “Monarch,” he was awarded the Board of Trade silver medal for gallantry in saving life at sea, by commanding a gig which went to the rescue of a stranded ship near Gibraltar, the sea being so heavy that the boat was capsized, but he and the crew were washed ashore. He served also as gunnery lieutenant of the “Colossus,” and on the staff of the “Excellent” gunnery establishment. Gazetted a commander in 1891, he was for a time employed as assistant to the Director of Naval Ordnance, being subsequently appointed first lieutenant to the “Sans Pareil,” and later to the ill-fated “Victoria,” Admiral Sir George Tryon’s flagship, on the Mediterranean station, which was sunk off Tripoli, on the Syrian coast, in collision with the “Camperdown,” when the admiral, twenty-one officers, and 350 men were drowned. At the time of the collision Commander Jellicoe was on the sick list in his cabin. When the ship capsized he, with the aid of Mr. West, a midshipman, contrived to keep himself afloat till picked up. Commander Jellicoe’s silver medal was lost with other effects in the “Victoria,” and the Board of Trade, so it was reported at the time, intimated that another medal could be obtained on payment. After serving as commander of the “Ramillies” flagship in the Mediterranean, he was promoted to the rank of captain (January 1st, 1897), and joined the Ordnance Committee. Admiral Sir E. H. Seymour selected him as flag captain in the “Centurion” on the China station. During the expedition to succour the Legations at Pekin in 1900, in which he narrowly escaped death by a severe gunshot wound, Captain Jellicoe commanded the Naval Brigade and acted as Chief Staff Officer, when he gained not only the C.B., but was awarded by the German Emperor the second class of the Red Eagle with crossed swords. Returning from China at the end of 1901, he was, in November of that year, appointed to superintend the building by contract of ships of war; he next served as Naval Assistant to the Controller of the Navy, which post he vacated in August, 1903, to take command of the “Drake,” and in February, 1905, he took up the post of Director of Naval Ordnance and Torpedoes, in succession to Captain Barry.