HMS Cavalier, 1944
National Destroyer Memorial
National Historic Fleet
HMS Cavalier is preserved as a memorial to the 142 Royal Navy destroyers sunk during the Second World War with the loss of over 11,000 lives. Cavalier also represents the work of the Dockyard during the 20th century-building, repairing and refitting the steel-hulled surface warships of the Royal Navy.
One of ninety-six emergency destroyers built for the Royal Navy during the Second World War, Cavalier was launched in 1942 from Samuel Whites Yard on the Isle of Wight. Awarded the Battle Honour 'Arctic 1945' for operations off northern Norway and in support of the homeward-bound Russian Convoy RA64, Cavalier, later operated in the Western Approaches and with the British Pacific Fleet.
After modernisation in 1957 Cavalier served with the Royal Navy, mainly in the Far East, until she paid off at Chatham in 1972. By then she was the Royal Navy's last operational Second World War destroyer.
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