HMS ''Gloucester'' was a Batch 3

Type 42 destroyer The Type 42 or ''Sheffield'' class was a class of fourteen guided-missile destroyers that served in the Royal Navy.Marriott, Leo: ''Royal Navy Destroyers since 1945'', , Ian Allan Ltd, 1989 A further two ships of this class were built for and ...

of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

, built by Vosper Thorneycroft at

Woolston, Southampton Woolston is a suburb of Southampton, located on the eastern bank of the River Itchen. It is bounded by the River Itchen, Sholing, Peartree Green, Itchen and Weston. The area has a strong maritime and aviation history. The former hamlet gr ...

and launched on 2 November 1982 by The

Duchess of Gloucester Duchess of Gloucester is the principal Courtesy titles in the United Kingdom, courtesy title used by the wife of the Duke of Gloucester. There have been five titles referring to Gloucester since the 14th century. The current duchess is Birgitt ...

. ''Gloucester'' was one of the modified last four of the class to be built, having a lengthened hull design giving better seakeeping qualities, greater endurance and an external '

strake On a vessel's Hull (watercraft), hull, a strake is a longitudinal course of Plank (wood), planking or Plate (metal), plating which runs from the boat's stem (ship), stempost (at the Bow (ship), bows) to the stern, sternpost or transom (nautica ...

' to counter longitudinal cracking, seen on earlier ships of the type.

History

In January 1987 ''Gloucester'' sailed for her first deployment; Armilla patrol, protecting civilian ships transiting the

Strait of Hormuz The Strait of Hormuz ( ''Tangeh-ye Hormoz'' , ''Maḍīq Hurmuz'') is a strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. It provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean and is one of the world's most strategica ...

. Port visits included

Djibouti City Djibouti (also called Djibouti City and Jibuti in early Western texts) is the capital city of the Djibouti, Republic of Djibouti. It is located in the coastal Djibouti Region on the Gulf of Tadjoura. Djibouti has a population of around 780,000 ...

;

Sharjah Sharjah (; ', Gulf Arabic: ''aš-Šārja'') is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It is the capital of the Emirate of Sharjah and forms part of the D ...

;

Manama Manama ( ', Bahrani Arabic, Bahrani pronunciation: ) is the capital and List of cities in Bahrain, largest city of Bahrain, with an approximate population of 297,502 as of 2012. Long an important trading center in the Persian Gulf, Manama is ...

;

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

;

Mombasa Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital status in 1907. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...

and

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

, returning to her homeport in June 1987. In January 1988 the ship again deployed to the Gulf for an Armilla patrol. Port visits this time included Bahrain;

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

; Mombasa and

Rhodes Rhodes (; ) is the largest of the Dodecanese islands of Greece and is their historical capital; it is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, ninth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Administratively, the island forms a separ ...

. Further visits were planned but these were curtailed due to increasing tensions in the region. In April 1989 ''Gloucester'' deployed westbound to perform duties as

West Indies Guard Ship List of Royal Navy deployments is a list of operations and commitments undertaken by the United Kingdom's Royal Navy on a worldwide basis. The following list details these commitments and deployments sorted by region and in alphabetical order. Ro ...

. Port visits included

Nassau, Bahamas Nassau ( ) is the capital and largest city of The Bahamas. It is on the island of New Providence, which had a population of 246,329 in 2010, or just over 70% of the entire population of The Bahamas. As of April 2023, the preliminary results of ...

;

Anguilla Anguilla is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Sa ...

;

Antigua Antigua ( ; ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the local population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the most populous island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua ...

;

British Virgin Islands The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands and north-west ...

;

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long spit (landform), sand spit which connects the town of Por ...

;

Acapulco Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , ; ), is a city and Port of Acapulco, major seaport in the Political divisions of Mexico, state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Located on a deep, semicirc ...

;

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

;

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and

West Palm Beach West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, Florida, Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lag ...

First Gulf War

''Gloucester'' served in the

Persian Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

in 1991 under the command of

Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank as well as a job title in many army, armies. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countri ...

(later Rear Admiral)

Philip Wilcocks Rear admiral (Royal Navy), Rear Admiral Philip Lawrence Wilcocks, (14 April 1953 – 9 April 2023) was a British senior Royal Navy officer who served as Rear Admiral Surface Ships. Early life Philip Wilcocks was born in Johor Bahru, Malaysia ...

where her most notable action was to shoot down an Iraqi

Silkworm missile The SY (), and HY () series were early anti-ship missile, anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCM) developed by the People's Republic of China from the Soviet Union, Soviet P-15 Termit missile. They entered service in the late 1960s and remained the main ...

with

Sea Dart missile Sea Dart, or GWS.30 was a Royal Navy surface-to-air missile system designed in the 1960s and entering service in 1973. It was fitted to the Type 42 destroyers, the single Type 82 destroyer and the s. Originally developed by Hawker Siddeley, t ...

s. The Iraqi missile had targeted the US

battleship A battleship is a large, heavily naval armour, armored warship with a main battery consisting of large naval gun, guns, designed to serve as a capital ship. From their advent in the late 1880s, battleships were among the largest and most form ...

and the intercept was the first validated, successful missile-versus-missile strike of its kind. After a missile warning, both the USS ''Missouri'' and fired

flare A flare, also sometimes called a fusée, fusee, or bengala, bengalo in several European countries, is a type of pyrotechnic that produces a bright light or intense heat without an explosion. Flares are used for distress signaling, illuminatio ...

s and

chaff Chaff (; ) is dry, scale-like plant material such as the protective seed casings of cereal grains, the scale-like parts of flowers, or finely chopped straw. Chaff cannot be digested by humans, but it may be fed to livestock, ploughed into soil ...

to decoy the missile. ''Gloucester'', drawing from the Royal Navy's experience during the

Falklands War The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...

, when

Exocet missile The Exocet () is a French-built anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from surface vessels, submarines, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Etymology The missile's name was given by M. Guillot, then the technical directo ...

s sank the merchant ship ''Atlantic Conveyor'' after decoys were deployed, did not activate her own decoys. The Royal Navy considered missiles like the Silkworm as targets to be shot down and firing chaff made that action difficult.Pokrant, M. (1999) ''Desert Storm at Sea: What the Navy Really Did''. London. pp.176-178 ''Gloucester'' initiated a hard turn, firing two Sea Darts "over her starboard shoulder". The entire engagement, from detection to destruction, took just 89 seconds. The interception range was between 2¾ and 4

nautical miles A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude at the eq ...

away from ''Gloucester'', and 4 to 7 nautical miles away from ''Missouri''. USS ''Jarrett''‘s history listed the missile's altitude at 375 feet while witnesses aboard HMS''

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

'' estimated between 680 and 1,000 feet. Later, ''Missouri''‘s 16-inch guns destroyed the Iraqi missile battery. ''Gloucester'' avoided two

naval mine A naval mine is a self-contained explosive weapon placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Similar to anti-personnel mine, anti-personnel and other land mines, and unlike purpose launched naval depth charges, they are ...

s, conducted boardings and the ship's

Lynx helicopter The Westland Lynx is a British multi-purpose twin-engined military helicopter designed and built by Westland Helicopters at its factory in Yeovil. Originally intended as a utility craft for both civil and naval usage, military interest led to t ...

destroyed several Iraqi warships including three fast attack craft, a T43 minelayer, and a

Polnocny-class landing ship The Polnocny (or Polnochny)-class ships are amphibious warfare vessels. They were designed in Poland, in cooperation with the Soviet Navy and were built in Poland between 1967 and 2002. They now serve in several different navies, and some hav ...

, with Sea Skua missiles. She spent the longest period in the combat area of any coalition warship and her captain (Commander

) and flight commander (Lt Cdr David Livingstone) were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross with the operations officer and flight observer both

mentioned in Despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face of t ...

. After this service ''Gloucester'' was rebranded "The Fighting G", after the earlier HMS ''

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

'', a Town-class cruiser, sunk by German aircraft, in May 1941.

Later Deployments

In 1997, ''Gloucester'' took part in Ocean Wave 97. Ocean Wave lasted 8 months, which saw her visit countries including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the UAE as well as taking part in the

Five Power Defence Arrangements The Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) are a series of bilateral defence relationships established by a series of multi-lateral agreements between Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United Kingdom, all of which are Commonwe ...

Exercise Flying Fish. She sailed as part of Task Group 327.01, under the flag of

Commander United Kingdom Task Group The Commander United Kingdom Task Group (COMUKTG ) was a senior Royal Navy operational appointment from April 1992 to March 2015. In March 2015 the post was renamed Commander Amphibious Task Group. History In April 1992, the Royal Navy re-designa ...

, Rear Admiral Alan West, along with the flagship and other ships such as and support ships. Part of the role of the Task Force was to oversee the peaceful handover of Hong Kong to the Chinese. During the

2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict The 2006 Lebanon War was a 34-day armed conflict in Lebanon, fought between Hezbollah and Israel. The war started on 12 July 2006, and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect in the morning on 14 August 2006, thoug ...

, ''Gloucester'' was the first Royal Navy vessel to evacuate

British nationals The primary law governing nationality in the United Kingdom is the British Nationality Act 1981, which came into force on 1 January 1983. Regulations apply to the British Islands, which include the UK itself (England, Wales, Scotland, and Nor ...

from

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

, berthing on 18 July 2006. She made three trips taking evacuees to

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

, and was the last Royal Navy ship to leave Beirut. She underwent a £6 million refit at

Rosyth Dockyard Rosyth Dockyard is a large Royal Navy Dockyard, naval dockyard on the Firth of Forth at Rosyth, Fife, Scotland, owned by Babcock Marine, which formerly undertook refitting of Royal Navy surface vessels and submarines. Before its privatisation i ...

in Fife, Scotland, in 2007. On the morning of 26 August 2010 she intercepted the yacht ''Tortuga'', smuggling £4 million of cocaine, during ''Gloucester''s voyage out to the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; ), commonly referred to as The Falklands, is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and from Cape Dub ...

, where she was deployed from August 2010 to early 2011. On 20 September 2010 the government of

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

denied ''Gloucester'' access to

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

as a result of the

Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute Sovereignty over the Falkland Islands () is disputed by Argentina and the United Kingdom. The British claim to sovereignty dates from 1690, when they made the first recorded landing on the islands, and the United Kingdom has exercised '' de fa ...

. In May 2011, she took part in Exercise Saxon Warrior. As part of Saxon Warrior '11, on 21 May 2011, Carrier Strike Group 2's and joined the U.S. replenishment tanker and the in conducting a transit exercise, with ''Gloucester'' and frigate acting as hostile forces. This was the final deployment for ''Gloucester'' prior to her decommissioning.

Decommissioning

''Gloucester'' returned to

HMNB Portsmouth His Majesty's Naval Base, Portsmouth (HMNB Portsmouth) is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Devonport). Portsmouth Naval Base is part of the city of Portsmouth; it is loc ...

for the final time on 24 May 2011 and was decommissioned on 30 June 2011, under the command of her last captain, Commander David George. On 22 September 2015 she left Portsmouth harbour under tow, bound for a breaker's yard in Turkey. During her service she sailed 787,928 miles (1,268,047 km) On decommissioning, Commander David George, said: ''"I cannot express how proud I am of the ship. It was a very emotional final entry for the very best of ships, but she is 29 years old, and with more than 750,000 miles .2m kilometresunder her belt. There are more capable Type 45 destroyers now taking the stage, and Gloucester’s time has come to bow out with dignity."''

Affiliations

The ship retains links with the

Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment was a short-lived infantry regiment of the British Army. History The regiment was formed in 1994 by the amalgamation of the Gloucestershire Regiment and the Duke of Edinburgh's Royal R ...

and the City of

. The ship's crest features a horseshoe, part of the city's Tudor arms. *

The Rifles The Rifles is an infantry regiment of the British Army. Formed in 2007, it consists of four Regular battalions and three Reserve battalions. Each Regular battalion was formerly an individual battalion of one of the two large regiments of the ...

City of Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

Worshipful Company of Grocers The Worshipful Company of Grocers is one of the 111 livery companies of the City of London, ranking second in order of precedence. Established in 1345 for merchants engaged in the grocery trade, it is one of the Great Twelve City Livery Compa ...

* Gloucester R.F.C. * 2nd Durrington

Sea Scout Sea Scouts are a part of the Scout movement, with a particular emphasis on boating and other water-based activities on the sea, rivers or lakes (canoeing, rafting, scuba, sailboarding). Sea Scouts can provide a chance to sail, cruise on boats, ...

Group * Gloucester Royal Naval Association *

Milton Abbey Milton Abbey School is a private school for day and boarding pupils in the village of Milton Abbas, near Blandford Forum in Dorset, in South West England. It has 224 pupils , in five houses: Athelstan, Damer, Hambro, Hodgkinson and Tregonwell. T ...

Combined Cadet Force The Combined Cadet Force (CCF) is a youth organisation in the United Kingdom, sponsored by the Ministry of Defence (MOD), which operates in schools, sub divided into Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Army and Royal Air Force sections. Its aim is to ...

(CCF)

Gallery

File:HMS Gloucester D96 BB.jpg, HMS ''Gloucester'' leaving

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

File:HMS Gloucester D96 BB 2.jpg, HMS ''Gloucester'' leaving Portsmouth

References

External links

Royal Navy Website: HMS Gloucester (D96)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gloucester (D96) Cold War destroyers of the United Kingdom History of Gloucester Military history of Gloucestershire 1982 ships Type 42 destroyers of the Royal Navy Gulf War ships of the United Kingdom