The Recommissioning ceremony took place at Portsmouth on Tuesday 25th May 1971

Noteable events involving HMS Devonshire 1929-1942

A modern warship is a complex and highly sophisticated creation. To operate such a ship successfully requires a wide diversity of talent:

Laid down in March 1926 as one of four County-class cruisers, Devonshire was built at the South Yard of Devonport Royal Dockyard, and she was launched at midday on Sunday 23 October 1927 by Lady Elizabeth Mildmay, the wife of the Lord Lieutenant of Devon, who broke a bottle of Devonshire cider over the bows of the new cruiser.

Our ship is the seventh to bear the name. It is thought that the name was introduced into the Navy in honour of the Cavendish family who first held the Earldoms of Devonshire and Cavendish at the time of the original launch.

Alex McCleod-Bain 1944-45.
I served on Devonshire from February 1944 till the time in 1945 when it was being sent to Australia to bring troops back home.

Informality was the keynote for the fourth Royal visitor to the city in a month. Princess Alexandra, at Portsmouth for the rededication of H.M.S Devonshire, conducted a “walk-about" in which she was for minutes on end hidden from the view of security men and obviously worried Service Chiefs.

Foreword by Captain P. N. HOWES, D.S.C., Royal Navy and the commission details of Britains first Guided Missile Destroyer (GMD)

Foreword by Captain D Williams, RN - I am, of course, delighted to contribute my part of a joint foreword to the Commission Book. Memories are one of the very few things which improve with age—but like wine, the better the vintage the more rewarding the experience. Over the years we shall doubtless each one of us recall different occasions and widely separate places—perhaps they will include the sun and sand of the West Indies, the visits to Oslo, Navy Days in Devonport