Allied Warships

HMS Woolston (L 49)

Destroyer of the Admiralty V & W class

HMS Woolston as seen early in the war.
Photograph with thanks to Ian Dayment.

Navy	The Royal Navy
Type	Destroyer
Class	Admiralty V & W
Pennant	L 49
Mod	Fast escort
Built by	Thornycroft (Southampton, U.K.)
Ordered	9 Dec 1916
Laid down	25 Apr 1917
Launched	27 Jan 1918
Commissioned	26 Jun 1918
End service
History	Reconstruction to Fast Escort at Chatham Dockyard was completed on 9 October 1939. Sold to be broken up for scrap on 18 February 1947.

Commands listed for HMS Woolston (L 49)

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	Commander	From	To
1	Lt.Cdr. Walter John Phipps, RN	5 Sep 1939	24 Apr 1941
2	Lt.Cdr. Kenneth Walter Michell, RN	24 Apr 1941	Sep 1942
3	Lt. Frederick William Hawkins, RN	Sep 1942	Oct 1943
4	Lt. Jack Broughton Cox, RN	Oct 1943	May 1945
5	Lt. John Valentine Brothers, RN	May 1945	mid 1945

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Notable events involving Woolston include:

hi i have two more pics of H M S Woolston my dad served on her one pic is her at Bergen Norway at the end of the war showing the skipper and Mayor of Bergen (1)

Note the ineffective .5" machine guns later to be replaced by 20mm Oerlikons.

Twin 4" AA gun turret.

Photographs with thanks to Ian Dayment whose grandfather Albert Hodder (see last photo) served on board Woolston during the war. (1)

21 Oct 1939
HMS Woolston (Lt.Cdr. W.J. Phipps, RN) picks up 4 survivors from the British merchant Orsa that was sunk after hitting a mine about 15 miles 150° from Flamborough Head. The mine was laid on 5 September 1939 by German U-boat U-15.

19 Jul 1940
HMS Triton (Lt.Cdr. E.F. Pizey, DSC, RN) conducts exercises in the Firth of Forth with HMS Woolston (Lt.Cdr. W.J. Phipps, OBE, RN). (2)

24 Aug 1940
HMS Seawolf (Lt. P.L. Field, RN) conducted exercises off Rosyth. These included A/S exercises with HMS Woolston (Lt.Cdr. W.J. Phipps, OBE, RN) and HMS Fleetwood (Cdr. R.W. Moir, RN). Also a practice attack was made on HMS Fleetwood. (3)

13 Jun 1943
HMS Sceptre (Lt. I.S. McIntosh, MBE, DSC, RN) conducted A/S exercises off Scapa Flow with HMS Wallace (Lt. D. Carson, RN), and HMS Viceroy (Lt. T.F. Hallifax, RN) and HMS Woolston (Lt. F.W. Hawkins, RN). (4)