H.M.S. Christopher (1912)

H.M.S. Christopher (1912)
Pendant Number:	H.51 (1914) H.25 (Jan 1918)^[1]
Builder:	Hawthorn Leslie & Company^[2]
Launched:	29 Aug, 1912^[3]
Completed:	Nov, 1912^[4]
Sold:	May, 1921^[5]

H.M.S. Christopher was one of twenty destroyers of the Acasta class.

Service

In mid-1913, she was part of the Fourth Destroyer Flotilla.^[6] She was to remain with that formation through almost the entire war.

At the Battle of Jutland, she operated with the Fourth Destroyer Flotilla under the command of Lieutenant-Commander Fairfax M. Kerr.^[7]

From mid-1917 to the end of the war, she was busy with anti-submarine patrol and convoy escort work, most often with Cockatrice and Ambuscade, who were at her side almost continuously.^[8]

On 19 June, 1918, her Captain Lawrence F. N. Ommanney was one of several man removed from the ship to hospital during a virulent outbreak that prompted a visit from a Fleet Surgeon from Apollo. Lieutenant Reginald W. English assumed command in his absence. The loss of personnel may have prompted the arrival that same day of fully 28 new sailors from H.M.S. Vivid.^[9] Ommanney rejoined his ship on 10 August.^[10]

In November, 1918, she left the 4DF to join the Northern Patrol Force with Cockatrice and Ambuscade.^[11]

Christopher paid off at Chatham on 27 April, 1920.^[12]

Captains

Dates of appointment are provided when known.

Lieutenant-Commander Eric Q. Carter, 20 November, 1912^[13]^[14] – 26 October, 1915^[15]
Lieutenant-Commander Fairfax M. Kerr, October, 1915^[16] (in command at Battle of Jutland)
Lieutenant in Command Walter C. Clark-Hall, mid 1916 – 29 July, 1916
Lieutenant in Command Frederic T. Peters, 14 September, 1916^[17] – 16 August, 1917
Lieutenant in Command Lawrence F. N. Ommanney, 16 August, 1917^[18] – 5 May, 1919 (ill from 19 June to 10 August, 1918)
Lieutenant in Command Reginald W. English, 19 June, 1918^[19] – 10 August, 1918^[20] (temporary, during illness of Ommanney)
Lieutenant in Command Lawrence F. N. Ommanney, 11 July, 1919 – 9 December, 1919 (and in charge of a group of T.B.Ds. in reserve)