HMS Canterbury was a C-class

C class cruiser

The C class was a group of twenty-eight light cruisers of the Royal Navy, and were built in a sequence of seven classes known as the Caroline , Calliope , Cambrian , Centaur , Caledon , Ceres and Carlisle classes...

 light cruiser

Light cruiser

A light cruiser is a type of small- or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck...

 of the British Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

. She was part of the Cambrian group of the C-class of cruisers. Unlike the rest of the subclass, Canterbury was armed with six torpedo tubes instead of the usual four.

She was laid down in October 1914, launched on 21 December 1915 and commissioned into the navy in April 1916. She was then attached to the Grand Fleet, commanded by Captain Percy M. R. Royds

Percy Royds

Admiral Sir Percy Molyneux Rawson Royds CB CMG ADC was a British admiral and politician.Royds was born in Rochdale, the son of Ernest Royds and the older brother of Charles Royds, also later an admiral. He was educated at Eastman's School in Southsea, a naval school, and joined HMS Britannia,...

. Whilst serving with the Fleet she participated in the Battle of Jutland

Battle of Jutland

The Battle of Jutland was a naval battle between the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet during the First World War. The battle was fought on 31 May and 1 June 1916 in the North Sea near Jutland, Denmark. It was the largest naval battle and the only...

 on 31 May to 1 June. She survived the battle and was then assigned to the 5th Light Cruiser Squadron, operating with the Harwich Force

Harwich Force

The Harwich Force was a squadron of the Royal Navy, formed during the First World War, that went on to play a significant role in the war.-History:...

 to defend the eastern approaches to the English Channel

English Channel

The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...

. On 5 June 1917, whilst serving with the Harwich force she sank the German torpedo boat

Torpedo boat

A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval vessel designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs rammed enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes, and later designs launched self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes. They were created to counter battleships and other large, slow and...

 S 20 off the Belgian coast. In 1918 she was assigned to operate in the Aegean

Aegean Sea

The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...

, where she saw out the rest of the war without incident.

She was considered obsolete by 1934, and was sold on 27 July, 1934 to Metal Industries, of Rosyth

Rosyth

Rosyth is a town located on the Firth of Forth, three miles south of the centre of Dunfermline. According to an estimate taken in 2008, the town has a population of 12,790....

 for breaking up. Her bell is at Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site....

.