H.M.S. Wakeful (1917)

H.M.S. Wakeful (1917)
Pendant Number:	F.37 (Jan 1918)
Builder:	John Brown & Company
Ordered:	December, 1916
Launched:	6 Oct, 1917
Completed:	Nov, 1917
Torpedoed:	29 May, 1940
Fate:	by Schnellboot

H.M.S. Wakeful was one of twenty-one "W" class destroyers completed for the Royal Navy in 1917-18.

Service

On 24 November, 1917 Wakeful and Ursa collided through what the Admiralty concluded was Wakeful's commander, Lt. Henry Armstrong Binmore being unfamiliar with the unspecified port in which the collision occurred. He was superseded in command of the ship two days later to take up command of Pylades, replaced in command of Wakeful by Cdr. Somerville Peregrine Brownlow Russell.

In December 1917, Wakeful joined the Thirteenth Destroyer Flotilla.

She was re-commissioned at Rosyth on 7 April, 1920.

Wakeful was re-commissioned on 13 April, 1922.

She was re-commissioned on 1 December, 1925.

Wakeful was commissioned on 19 May, 1927 under the command of Alastair Gordon Davidson for service with the Second Destroyer Flotilla in the Mediterranean.

She was re-commissioned at Chatham on 1 January, 1929 for service in the Sixth Destroyer Flotilla of the Atlantic Fleet.

Re-commissioned at Sheerness on 7 October, 1930.

Wakeful was reduced to Reserve on 18 June, 1931.

In June of 1933, her bell was one of about 100 surplus bells announced as being for sale at prices ranging from £1 to £10. Preference would be given to those offers from men with a special consideration in the bell in question.

The destroyer re-commissioned in Reserve at Chatham on 13 March, 1936.

Captains

Dates of appointment are provided when known.

• Lieutenant in Command Henry A. Binmore, 5 November, 1917 – 26 November, 1917
• Commander Somerville P. B. Russell, 26 November, 1917 – 19 July, 1918
• Lieutenant-Commander Algernon E. P. Lyons, 19 July, 1918 – 8 December, 1919
• Commander Malcolm Murray, 6 April, 1920 – 5 January, 1921
• Commander Kenneth A. Beattie, 5 January, 1921 – 2 March, 1922
• Commander Percy R. P. Percival, 13 April, 1922 – 23 January, 1923
• Lieutenant-Commander Ernest Beeley, 23 January, 1923 – 3 February, 1925
• Lieutenant-Commander Geoffrey C. Fryer, 3 February, 1925 – 1 December, 1925
• Lieutenant-Commander Eric P. Vivian, 15 April, 1926 – 1926  (transferred to Watchman)
• Lieutenant-Commander Alastair G. Davidson, 19 May, 1927 – 31 August, 1927
• Lieutenant-Commander James C. Colvill, April, 1928 – 1 October, 1928
• Lieutenant-Commander Alan MacG. Sheffield, 3 April, 1928 – 12 July, 1928  (vice Colvill; this seems to disagree with his SR as I read it)
• Lieutenant-Commander Roland F. B. Swinley, 12 July, 1928 – late 1928  (transferred in from, and out to Wessex)
• Lieutenant-Commander Robert A. Cassidi, 5 November, 1928 – 9 April, 1929
• Lieutenant-Commander Walter J. Phipps, 29 April, 1929  (transferred out to Westminster)
• Lieutenant-Commander Theodore F. A. Voysey, April, 1929 – 1 May, 1929
• Lieutenant-Commander Ian R. H. Black, April, 1930 – September, 1930  (transferred in from, and out to Wrestler)
• Lieutenant-Commander Arthur F. C. Layard, September, 1930 – 1931  (took command upon commissioning, transferred out to Vivacious)
• Lieutenant-Commander Hugh Gartside-Tippinge, 1 July, 1935 – 19 July, 1935
• Commander Robert St. V. Sherbrooke, 31 July, 1939 – 18 December, 1939
• Lieutenant-Commander Ralph L. Fisher, 18 December, 1939 – 29 May, 1940  (ship sunk under his command)

See Also

• Wikipedia