HMS Prince Rupert

HMS "Prince Rupert" was a First World War Royal Navy "Lord Clive"-class monitor named for Prince Rupert of the Rhine, an important Royalist cavalry commander of the English Civil War. Although she is the only ship of the Royal Navy to have ever had this precise name, other ships have been named for Prince Rupert as HMS "Rupert". Her 12" main battery was stripped from the obsolete "Majestic"-class battleships.

The "Lord Clive" class monitors were built in 1915 to engage German shore artillery in occupied Belgium during the First World War. "Prince Rupert", with her sisters was regulaly engaged in this service in the Dover Monitor Squadron, bombarding German positions along the coast and someway inland with their heavy guns.

Following the armistice in November 1918, "Prince Rupert" and all her sisters were put into reserve pending scrapping, as the reason for their existence had ended with the liberation of Belgium. In 1923 "Prince Rupert" was scrapped, outliving all her sisterships by two years as she had been briefly attached to the stone frigate HMS "Pembroke" at Chatham Dockyard.

References

* Dittmar, F. J. & Colledge, J. J., "British Warships 1914-1919", (Ian Allen, London, 1972), ISBN 0-7110-0380-7
* Gray, Randal (ed), "Conway's All The Worlds Fighting Ships, 1906-1921", (Conway Maritime Press, London, 1985), ISBN 0-85177-245-5