This ship was originally a fishing trawler launched on 24 March 1936. She was requisitioned by 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 ...

upon the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in 1939 and designated HMT ''Lord Middleton'' with the

pennant number In the Royal Navy and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations, ships are identified by pennant number (an internationalisation of ''pendant number'', which it was called before 1948). Historically, naval ships flew a flag that iden ...

(FY219). She survived the war and was returned to her owner in July 1945. She was scrapped in 1964. Her sister-ship, HMT ''Lord Austin'', was lost on 24 June 1944. The ship features in a song written by Alan Bell of The Taverners Folk Group: ''"So spare to her a kindly glance if e'er you're passing by, for over there in the old scrapyard the Lord Middleton must die"''.

Service in the Second World War

In April 1942, ''Lord Middelton'' rescued crew from the torpedoed

merchantman A merchant ship, merchant vessel, trading vessel, or merchantman is a watercraft that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This is in contrast to pleasure craft, which are used for personal recreation, and naval ships, which are us ...

''Empire Howard''. In May of the same year, she also rescued some of the crew of the Soviet ship ''Tsiolkovskij'' after that vessel was eventually sunk by attacks from a German

U-boat U-boats are Submarine#Military, naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the World War I, First and Second World Wars. The term is an Anglicization#Loanwords, anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the G ...

and two

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...

s. On 20 September 1942, ''Lord Middleton'' was part of

Convoy PQ 18 Convoy PQ 18 (2–21 September 1942) was an Arctic convoy of forty Allied freighters from Scotland and Iceland to Arkhangelsk in the Soviet Union during the Second World War. The convoy departed Loch Ewe, Scotland on 2 September 1942, rendezvous ...

which was attacked by . During the battle, was hit and sustained major damage. ''Lord Middleton'' evacuated 80 of her 190-strong crew, leaving some of them to try to save the ship. When the ship eventually broke in two and sank five days later, ''Lord Middleton'' and pulled 35 more of her crew from the sea. On 17 February 1943, as part of the

Arctic convoy The Arctic convoys of World War II were oceangoing convoys which sailed from the United Kingdom, Iceland, and North America to northern ports in the Soviet Union – primarily Arkhangelsk (Archangel) and Murmansk in Russia. There were 78 convoys ...

JW 53 to the Soviet port of

Murmansk Murmansk () is a port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast in the far Far North (Russia), northwest part of Russia. It is the world's largest city north of the Arctic Circle and sits on both slopes and banks of a modest fjord, Ko ...

, HMT ''Lord Middleton'' suffered flooding in her forward storeroom in the bad weather and was lagging behind the convoy. She was forced to retreat to

Scapa Flow Scapa Flow (; ) is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray,S. C. George, ''Jutland to Junkyard'', 1973. South Ronaldsay and Hoy. Its sheltered waters have played an impor ...

escorted by the

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloo ...

HMS ''Dianella''.

References

Naval-History.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lord Middleton Anti-submarine trawlers of the Royal Navy 1936 ships Ships built in Selby