HMS Chivalrous (R21): Palestine, Abadan and Five Years as PNS Taimur

Built at Dumbarton

HMS Chivalrous was one of the Ch group of the C Class destroyers, built by William Denny and Brothers at Dumbarton alongside the group's leader, Childers. She was laid down in November 1943, launched on 22 June 1945, and commissioned on 13 May 1946.

The photograph at the top of this page shows her at anchor on the Clyde five days before, on 8 May 1946, with the black ball at her yard that told other ships she was at anchor.

The Mediterranean

She went out to the Mediterranean with the 14th Destroyer Squadron, later renumbered the 1st, and was based at Malta with the rest of the Ch group. In 1947 she took her turn on the Palestine Patrol, intercepting the ships carrying Jewish refugees towards Palestine; the work of the patrol is described in the articles on Chieftain and Childers.

In 1951, when Iran nationalised the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and threatened the great British refinery at Abadan, she was sent to the Persian Gulf with Chequers, Chevron and Chieftain to stand by to protect and if necessary evacuate the British oil workers, until the destroyers of the 3rd Flotilla relieved them.

PNS Taimur

Pakistan had become independent in 1947 with a small navy inherited from the old Royal Indian Navy, and Britain helped it build a fleet of destroyers. On 29 June 1954 Chivalrous was lent to the Pakistan Navy and renamed Taimur, after the conqueror Timur.

She was based at Karachi, and she was the first of a group of C Class destroyers that went to Pakistan: her sister Charity became Shah Jahan, Creole became Alamgir and Crispin became Jahangir, named after Timur and the Mughal emperors descended from him. Unlike them, Taimur was only on loan.

At the end of the 1950s she was returned to the Royal Navy, and in 1961 she was sold for scrap. Her sisters are in the C Class destroyers collection.