HMS Loch Killisport (F628): First Through Suez After It Reopened

Built and Commissioned Just After the War

HMS Loch Killisport was launched in 1944 but not commissioned until July 1945, following sea trials, a Loch-class frigate named after the sea loch on Scotland's west coast, carrying the pennant number K628 before it was changed to F628 in 1948. Her late commissioning meant she arrived just too late to take part in the anti-submarine warfare that had defined so much of her sister ships' wartime careers.

A Future Duke Aboard

HMS Loch Killisport sailed to the Far East in August 1945 with the Eastern Fleet, and among her officers at the time was a young Prince Philip, later Duke of Edinburgh, serving aboard during postwar repatriation operations in Java and Sumatra.

The ship escorted vessels carrying former prisoners of war and civilian internees home, important humanitarian work carried out in the immediate aftermath of the Japanese surrender, before returning to Britain in April 1946 and being laid up in reserve at Plymouth.

The Search for HMS Affray

HMS Loch Killisport recommissioned in 1950 and, following modernisation, served with the Home Fleet. In 1951 she took part in the search for the submarine HMS Affray, lost with all hands in the English Channel, one of many Royal Navy vessels drawn into that anxious and ultimately tragic operation.

First Through the Reopened Suez Canal

HMS Loch Killisport underwent extensive modernisation for tropical service between 1953 and 1954, recommissioning again in February 1955 for deployment to the Persian Gulf and Far East.

In August 1957 she achieved a truly notable historical distinction, becoming the first Royal Navy ship to transit the Suez Canal after it reopened following the 1956 Suez Crisis, a symbolically significant moment for a waterway whose closure and reopening had so dramatically shaped British and international politics in the intervening months.

Salvage Missions and Borneo

HMS Loch Killisport carried out a series of salvage missions during her Gulf and Far East service, assisting the distressed Italian tanker Argea Prima in 1955 and the French tanker Fernand Gilabert in 1958, actions for which two of her officers received the Queen's Commendation for brave conduct.

Between 1962 and 1964 she supported military operations during the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation, operating from bases at Tawau, Labuan and Sandakan in Borneo, adding a substantial Cold War-era combat support role to an already varied career.

A Quiet End

HMS Loch Killisport was decommissioned on 4 August 1965 and laid up at Portsmouth, before being sold to the British Iron and Steel Corporation on 20 February 1970 for demolition by Hughes Bolckow, arriving at the breaker's yard in Blyth on 18 March that year, closing out the career of a frigate whose remarkably diverse service, from carrying a future royal consort to leading the way back through Suez, made her one of the more historically interesting ships of her class.