HMS ''Devonshire'' was the first of the

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...

s and the first Batch 1 ship of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

. The ship was built by

Cammell Laird Cammell Laird is a British shipbuilding company. It was formed from the merger of Laird Brothers of Birkenhead and Johnson Cammell & Co of Sheffield at the turn of the twentieth century. The company also built railway rolling stock until 1929, ...

Birkenhead Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...

near

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

. With a displacement of 6,200 tons full load, ''Devonshire'' was named after the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

county of

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

. She was launched on 10 June 1960 and delivered to the navy two years later.

Operational service

In 1962 ''Devonshire'' was commissioned and became the first operational Royal Navy ship to fire the

Seaslug missile Seaslug was a first-generation surface-to-air missile designed by Armstrong Whitworth (later part of the Hawker Siddeley group) for use by the Royal Navy. Tracing its history as far back as 1943's LOPGAP design, it came into operational service in ...

. Following work up, she sailed for the Mediterranean, followed by a return to her home port of Portsmouth. From here she then sailed for

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and the United States. She returned to Portsmouth just before the end of 1962. Captain George Cunningham Leslie OBE, served as Commanding officer from 1965 to 1966. On 31 August 1966, ''Devonshire'' collided with the tanker ''British Sovereign'' off the mouth of the

River Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Repu ...

. No-one was injured on either ship. Captain Peter Buchanan served as Commanding Officer from 1973 to 1974. ''Devonshire'' was involved in patrol duties in the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...

and the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

, but was not involved in any armed conflict of the United Kingdom. Like the other first batch of County-class ships, ''Devonshire'' was fitted with the Seaslug anti aircraft missile defence system. She attended the 1977 Silver Jubilee

Fleet Review A fleet review or naval review is an event where a gathering of ships from a particular navy is paraded and reviewed by an incumbent head of state and/or other official civilian and military dignitaries. A number of national navies continue to ...

off

Spithead Spithead is an area of the Solent and a roadstead off Gilkicker Point in Hampshire, England. It is protected from all winds except those from the southeast. It receives its name from the Spit, a sandbank stretching south from the Hampshire ...

when she was part of the First Flotilla.Official Souvenir Programme, 1977. ''Silver Jubilee Fleet Review'', HMSO

Decommissioning and disposal

''Devonshire'' was decommissioned under defence cuts in 1978, though was immediately offered for sale to

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

, but the sale did not go through. Laid up in

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

harbour for six years, the ship was used as a target, first for testing the new

Sea Eagle A sea eagle or fish eagle (also called erne or ern, mostly in reference to the white-tailed eagle) is any of the birds of prey in the genus ''Haliaeetus'' in the bird of prey family Accipitridae. Taxonomy and evolution The genus ''Haliaeetus'' ...

anti-ship missile, then sunk by as a target on 17 July 1984 (two days after the Sea Eagle test) in the

North Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe and ...

, whilst testing the Mark 24-Mod-2 Tigerfish torpedo.

References

Publications

* * Marriott, Leo, ''Royal Navy Destroyers since 1945'', Ian Allan, * McCart, Neil, 2014. ''County Class Guided Missile Destroyers'', Maritime Books.

External links

firing of Seaslug from HMS Devonshire
{{DEFAULTSORT:Devonshire (D02) County-class destroyers of the Royal Navy Ships built on the River Mersey 1960 ships Cold War destroyers of the United Kingdom Maritime incidents in 1984