HMS Hursley

The Royal Navy connection with Hursley was purely in the name, which was used appropriately for a ‘Hunt Class’ Destroyer, HMS Hursley. Appropriately the link here is with the Hursley Hunt, and also Hursley begins with an ‘H’. The first ship of the series was called HMS Hunt. When the Admiralty ran out of place names beginning with ‘H’ (and they included Havant with HMS Havant), they went on to other place names associated with a Hunt such as Cattistock in Dorset.

HMS Hursley. Photo: © The Trustees of the Imperial War Museum.

HMS Hursley was a typical hard-working wartime destroyer in the Royal Navy, with a short but very creditable war service record. Built by Swan Hunter at Wallsend on Tyne in 1941 and commissioned in 1942, she had a full complement of 168 men, commanded by Lt. Cmdr. W J P Church. The photograph shows HMS Hursley in about 1942 when she had just been commissioned for naval service and was either completing or had just completed her sea trials from Swan Hunter’s yard.

Four different versions of the Hunt Class destroyers were built during the war, and a total of 86 were completed in all. Of these work- horses of the fleet, 23 were lost as a result of enemy action. One of these was HMS Havant, which was sunk by enemy aircraft during the evacuation of Dunkirk. After the war, 13 of the Hunts were transferred to foreign navies and re- commissioned with new names.

The Hunt Class destroyers were of necessity utility ships, built to a minimum standard to satisfy the urgent need for destroyers in World War II. It is interesting to note that the early versions built up to the end of 1940 had a range of only 2,000 nautical miles and, owing to their limited fuel capacity, were unable to make an Atlantic crossing. HMS Hursley, however, belonged to the improved second generation of Hunt Class vessels with a range of 3,600 nautical miles, and was quite fast for the time with a maximum speed of 27 knots. It appears that HMS Hursley performed all her wartime service in the Mediterranean zone, where she very soon made a name for herself, taking part in action off Benghazi in Libya, and was later involved in support operations in the Aegean Sea.

After the war, HMS Hursley was transferred to the Greek navy, and sailed under the name ‘Kriti’ (Crete). She was seen in Valetta harbour Malta, in 1953/54, and was finally scrapped in 1960.