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The name HMS Warspite has long been a part of British naval tradition. The first ship to bear this name, a 29-gun galleon, sailed under the command of Sir Walter Raleigh in 1596. The eighth Warspite, a mighty battleship, fought in both World Wars.

Warspite was one of the Queen Elizabeth class super dreadnoughts  that marked the climax of the pre-WWI naval arms race between Britain and Germany. Mounting eight 15-inch guns, the Queen Elizabeths were the first oil-fired British battleships capable of a speed of 23 knots. They possessed an almost perfect combination of gun power, armour protection and speed. At the Battle of Jutland in 1916, Warspite was hit 13 times after her steering gear jammed and she circled in front of the German fleet. She survived the First World War with a few more minor accidents.

In 1934, Warspite received a complete modernisation. Her superstructure was radically altered, allowing an aircraft hangar to be fitted, and changes were also made to her armament and propulsion systems.

She also saw action in WW2: Calabria, Taranto and Matapan in the 1940s, before sailing for the Far East to join the struggle against the Japanese fleet.  Warspite was retired from service at the end of the Second World War and in 1947 was being towed to the breaker's yard when, during a storm, she broke free from her tugs and ran aground in Prussia Cove, off the Cornish coast.  

Sources: Public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships

and pictures from my father's 1943 Naval Recognition Manual

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