HMS Winchester (L55): The Destroyer That Fulfilled a King's Dying Wish

Cowes-Built

HMS Winchester was built by J. Samuel White and Company at Cowes on the Isle of Wight, her keel laid on 12 June 1917, launched on 1 February 1918 and completed on 29 April that year, entering service just as the First World War drew to a close, in time to take part in operations against Bolshevik forces in the Baltic Sea.

A King's Final Request

In one of the more poignant episodes in Royal Navy history, HMS Winchester, under the command of Captain W. N. T.

Beckett, fulfilled King George V's dying wish in 1936 by sinking his beloved royal yacht HMY Britannia at St Catherine's Deep near the Isle of Wight, a solemn act of ceremonial disposal that this account treats with the respect such a personal royal request deserves.

Damaged Off the Dutch Coast

Reconstructed for escort duties in April 1940, Winchester supported evacuation operations from Dover that May, operating off Flushing during the night of 14 and 15 May 1940 as German forces overran the Netherlands, sustaining damage during air attacks before repairs were completed by mid-June.

Escorting Cruisers and Training Crews

Through the following years, Winchester carried out a range of escort duties, accompanying the heavy cruiser HMS Norfolk to Scapa Flow in September 1941 and HMS Cumberland to Sheerness in February 1942, before turning to anti-submarine training exercises in the Firth of Forth alongside Allied vessels through 1942 and into 1943, changing command five times over the course of the war.

Scrapped After the War

HMS Winchester had dropped from the active Navy List by January 1945, and was sold to be broken up for scrap on 5 March 1946, closing out the career of a destroyer whose most memorable moment had come not in battle but in the quiet, solemn duty of laying a king's own yacht to rest at his final request.