HMS Magpie (U82): Prince Philip's Only Naval Command

HMS Magpie (U82)

Built at Woolston

HMS Magpie was laid down at Thornycroft's Woolston shipyard in Southampton on 30 December 1941, launched on 24 March 1943 and completed that August, the seventh Royal Navy ship to carry the name, a Modified Black Swan-class sloop displacing 1,350 tons and armed with three twin 4-inch guns alongside Bofors and Oerlikon cannon, backed up by Hedgehog anti-submarine mortars and a substantial stock of 110 depth charges, a genuinely formidable submarine hunter for a ship of her modest size.

Two U-boats Sunk

HMS Magpie joined the 2nd Support Group based at Liverpool for North Atlantic convoy escort duties in October 1943, and went on to score a significant success on 31 January 1944, when a large underwater explosion brought up debris including human remains and documents confirming the destruction of U-592. The following month she took part in further attacks on multiple U-boats, including U-238, expending a remarkable 252 depth charges and 48 Hedgehog projectiles in the process, a genuinely intensive anti-submarine campaign even by the demanding standards of the mid-Atlantic battle.

Arctic Convoys and D-Day

HMS Magpie joined convoy JW 58 in March 1944, supporting Soviet operations by escorting the convoy safely to the Kola Inlet without losses, before taking part in one of the war's most significant single days, escorting an assault convoy to Gold Beach during the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944, a genuinely central role in the largest amphibious invasion in history.

Accepting a U-boat's Surrender

HMS Magpie's war ended with a moment of real historical significance: on 10 May 1945, together with her sister ship HMS Amethyst, she took the surrender of the German submarine U-249, the first German U-boat to surrender in British waters, a fitting close to a wartime record that had already included two confirmed U-boat kills and a central role in the Normandy landings.

A Future Duke's Only Command

HMS Magpie was officially reclassified as a frigate in 1947, receiving the new pennant number F82, and went on to achieve her most lasting fame in an entirely different way. From 2 September 1950 until 1951, she was commanded by Lieutenant Commander Philip Mountbatten, later the Duke of Edinburgh, then 29 years old and based in the Mediterranean, in what would remain his only ever naval command before his royal duties took precedence over his career at sea. The connection endured well beyond his time aboard: a magpie icon adopted by the ship in 1952 with Philip's own support went on to serve as the crest for successive HMS Magpies for decades afterward.

Postwar Service and a Quiet End

HMS Magpie continued to serve with the Mediterranean Fleet after Philip's command ended, deploying to Aqaba in 1949 during unrest in Palestine and to Trieste following civil disturbance there, and took part in the Coronation Fleet Review for Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. She served with the 7th Frigate Squadron at Simonstown in South Africa from 1955 to 1958, before returning home to pay off and being broken up by Hughes Bolckow at Blyth on 12 July 1959. Her ship's bell and trophies were donated to Monkton Combe Junior School near Bath, ensuring that the ship a future Duke of Edinburgh once commanded was not forgotten once her working life had ended.