HMS Westminster (L40) was a W class destroyer

Destroyer

In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...

 of the 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 the first ship to bear the name. Launched in 1918, she served through two World Wars, and survived both to be sold for scrap in 1947.

Construction and commissioning

Westminster was ordered on 9 December 1916 from Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company

Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company

Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Limited, often referred to simply as Scotts, was a Scottish shipbuilding company based in Greenock on the River Clyde.- History :...

, Greenock

Greenock

Greenock is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in United Kingdom, and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 with the 10th order of the 1916-17 Programme. She was laid down in April 1917, launched on 24 February 1918 and commissioned on 18 April 1918.

First World War and interwar period

HMS Westminster's first rôle was escorting battle cruisers in the North Sea

North Sea

In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

. She was later an escort for the German High Sea Fleet on its way to 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....

 in November 1918 after the German surrender

Armistice with Germany (Compiègne)

The armistice between the Allies and Germany was an agreement that ended the fighting in the First World War. It was signed in a railway carriage in Compiègne Forest on 11 November 1918 and marked a victory for the Allies and a complete defeat for Germany, although not technically a surrender...

.

Less than one month after the war

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 ended, HMS Westminster was required to help evacuate the crew of cruiser HMS Cassandra

HMS Cassandra (1916)

HMS Cassandra was a C-class light cruiser of the British Royal Navy. She was part of the Caledon group of the C-class of cruisers.She was built by Vickers Limited, Barrow in Furness and laid down in March 1916, launched on 25 November 1916 and commissioned into the Navy in June 1917.She had a...

 when she struck a mine. Yet just one day later, in thick fog, HMS Westminster herself collided with the V class destroyer HMS Verulam and needed extensive repair. Westminster then served in the Baltic

Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...

 and was damaged in action with Russian warships. She then served in the 6th Flotilla, Atlantic Fleet in 1921, before being reduced to the Reserve

Reserve fleet

A reserve fleet is a collection of naval vessels of all types that are fully equipped for service but are not currently needed, and thus partially or fully decommissioned. A reserve fleet is informally said to be "in mothballs" or "mothballed"; an equivalent expression in unofficial modern U.S....

.
By 1939 an extensive rearmament programme was underway. A number of old V and W class destroyer

V and W class destroyer

The V and W class was an amalgam of six similar classes of destroyer built for the Royal Navy under the War Emergency Programme of the First World War and generally treated as one class...

s were selected for refitting into anti-aircraft escorts. Westminster was among those reactivated, and she was taken in hand by Devonport Dockyard

HMNB Devonport

Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England...

. The conversion lasted until December 1940, during which her pennant number

Pennant number

In the modern Royal Navy, and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth, ships are identified by pennant numbers...

 was changed from L50 to D45, to conform with use as an Escort Destroyer. She carried out post refit trials in December, and was then recommissioned and nominated to carry out convoy defence duty in the North Sea.

Second World War

Westminster joined the Rosyth Escort Force in January, and deployed with them until April, when she transferred to the Dover Command to support military activities and cover convoys in the English Channel. In early May, 1940, HMS Westminster was one of four British destroyers supporting the French Army

French Army

The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...

 off the coast of Dunkirk, and supported the evacuation of Flushing

Flushing, Netherlands

Vlissingen is a municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the former island of Walcheren. With its strategic location between the Scheldt river and the North Sea, Vlissingen has been an important harbour for centuries. It was granted city rights in 1315. In the 17th century...

. Her crew remained continuously at action stations for four days at a time and the ship successfully fought off air attacks, without any casualties until 15 May. On 20 May she struck a submerged wreck off Dunkirk and sustained considerable damage. She put into Dunkirk for repair works, and was the last ship to be repaired there before the town fell to the Germans.

She returned to active duty in June and for the rest of the war, she served with the Rosyth Escort Force protecting important shipping convoys in home waters. Part of this duty included screening the maiden voyage of the battleship HMS King George V

HMS King George V (41)

HMS King George V was the lead ship of the five British King George V-class battleships of the Royal Navy. Laid down in 1937 and commissioned in 1940, King George V operated during the Second World War as part of the British Home and Pacific Fleets...

 from Tyne

River Tyne

The River Tyne is a river in North East England in Great Britain. It is formed by the confluence of two rivers: the North Tyne and the South Tyne. These two rivers converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Waters'.The North Tyne rises on the...

 to 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....

. As Westminster had been converted for use as an Escort and fitted with suitable high angle 4in armament for anti-aircraft defence, she was retained for the protection of the vital East coast convoys and not deployed for other use such as support of the Allied landings Normandy and service escorting of Russian convoys

Arctic convoys of World War II

The Arctic convoys of World War II travelled from the United Kingdom and North America to the northern ports of the Soviet Union—Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. There were 78 convoys between August 1941 and May 1945...

. She was also fitted with other weapons for attacks on E-boats as well as with special radio equipment for communication with aircraft and other escorts.

HMS Westminster engaged E-boats of the 2nd German Flotilla on 12 October, in company with the destroyers HMS Wolsey and HMS Cotswold whilst defending convoy FN-31 as it sailed off the Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

 coast. She was in action again against E-boats, this time off Lowestoft

Lowestoft

Lowestoft is a town in the English county of Suffolk. The town is on the North Sea coast and is the most easterly point of the United Kingdom. It is north-east of London, north-east of Ipswich and south-east of Norwich...

 with the corvette

Corvette

A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft or fast attack craft , although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role...

 HMS Widgeon and HM Motor Gunboats

Motor Gun Boat

Motor Gun Boat was a Royal Navy term for a small military vessel of the Second World War. They were physically similar to the Motor Torpedo Boats but equipped with a mix of guns instead of torpedoes. Their small size and high speed made them difficult targets for E-boats or torpedo bombers, but...

 88 and 91. Wesminster sank three E-boats in total. Only once was a German attack able to get past the escort to sink merchant shipping.

Postwar

After the end of the war Westminster was briefly employed as a destroyer courier to Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

, but was withdrawn from operational service and paid-off by mid June. She was then reduced to the reserve and put on the disposal list in 1946. She was sold to BISCO

British Steel

British Steel was a major British steel producer. It originated as a nationalised industry, the British Steel Corporation , formed in 1967. This was converted to a public limited company, British Steel PLC, and privatised in 1988. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index...

 on 4 March 1947 and towed to the breakers' yard in Charlestown

Charlestown, Fife

Charlestown, Fife is a town in Scotland on the north shore of the Firth of Forth, adjoining Limekilns and Rosyth. Like Rosyth, Charlestown was home to a sizable shipbreaking industry in the mid twentieth centuryCharlestown is home to the The Scottish Lime Centre Trust which was established in 1994...

, near Rosyth, arriving there during August 1948. She was then broken up.

A Type 23

Type 23 frigate

The Type 23 frigate is a class of frigate built for the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom. All the ships were first named after British Dukes, thus the class is also known as the Duke class. The first Type 23 was commissioned in 1989, and the sixteenth, was launched in May 2000 and commissioned in...

 frigate

Frigate

A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...

 was named HMS Westminster

HMS Westminster (F237)

HMS Westminster is a Type 23 frigate of the Royal Navy, and the second ship to bear the name. She was launched on 4 February 1992.Westminster was used for the interior shots in the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies in three different roles - as HMS Chester, HMS Devonshire and HMS Bedford...

in 1992.