HMCS PATRIOT

 

Thornycroft M-Class Destroyer

 

 

HMCS PATRIOT circa 1922

RCN Photo

 

Launched: 20 Apr 1916

Commissioned: 

Paid off: 1920

Transferred to RCN: 01 Nov 1920

Commissioned: 01 Nov 1920

Paid off: 1929

Fate: Sold in 1929 to be broken up

 

Patrician and PATRIOT were commissioned in 1916,and served in the RN for the duration of the First World War. In 1920 Patrician, PATRIOT, and the cruiser AURORA were offered to Canada as replacements for the decrepit NIOBE and RAINBOW. The three were commissioned at Devonport on November 1, 1920, and left for Canada a month later. When the naval budget was cut by a million dollars in 1922, the two destroyers became the only seagoing ships in the RCN. PATRIOT was stationed at Halifax where she spent the next five years training officers and men of the naval reserve. In Sep 1921, she assisted Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, towing his experimental hydrofoil craft HD-4 at high speed on Bras d'Or Lake near Baddeck, NS.  PATRIOT was sold for scrap in 1929 and broken up at Briton Ferry, Wales.

 

 

Photos and Documents          Ship's company photos

 

 

Commanding Officers

 

Lt Charles Taschereau Beard, RCN - 01 Nov 1920 - 02 Sep 1922

Lt George Clarence Jones, RCN - 03 Sep 1922 - 23 Aug 1923

Lt Howard Emmerson Reid - 24 Aug 1923 - 06 Oct 1925

Lt Cuthbert Robert Holland Taylor, RCN - 07 Oct 1925 - 04 Aug 1926

LCdr Cuthbert Robert Holland Taylor, RCN - 05 Aug 1926 - 23 Oct 1927

 

 

     In memory of those who have crossed the bar    

They shall not be forgotten

 

 

 

Photos and Documents

 

HMCS PATRIOT


DND / RCN Photo - Crown copyright

HMCS Aurora, HMCS Patrician, HMCS PATRIOT - open to the public

 

The Morning Chronicle, Halifax, 23 Dec 1920

 

Research by / Courtesy of George Newbury

HMCS PATRIOT circa 1922

 

Photo from the collection of Robert Webster, PO, RCNVR

 

This photograph emphasizes the lean, predatory lines of HMCS PATRIOT, one of two destroyers acquired by Canada in 1920. The destroyers PATRIOT and PATRICIAN had seen British service in the First World War before being transferred to Canada. Along with the light cruiser HMCS AURORA, they formed the core of the Royal Canadian Navy in the early postwar years. Following AURORA'S paying-off in 1922, PATRIOT was the only significant Royal Canadian Navy unit on the east coast, and saw extensive use as a training ship for naval reservists.

 

Photo description from George Metcalf Archival Collection CWM 19850317-001 

 

HMCS PATRIOT in Drydock at Halifax Shipyards

 

From the collection of Ralph Reginald Pattison

 

Courtesy of David Pattison

HMCS PATRIOT off Trinidad, 1922

 

From the collection of Ralph Reginald Pattison

 

Courtesy of David Pattison

 

     

HMCS PATRIOT conducting a torpedo shoot and boat crew recovering the torpedo, Feb 1924

 

From the collection of Ralph Reginald Pattison

 

Courtesy of David Pattison

Fo'c's'le gun of HMCS PATRIOT

 

From the collection of Ralph Reginald Pattison

 

Courtesy of David Pattison

HMCS PATRIOT and HMCS Patrician alongside Halifax 1922

 

From the collection of Ralph Reginald Pattison

 

Courtesy of David Pattison

HMCS PATRIOT's Mascot

 

From the collection of Ralph Reginald Pattison

 

Courtesy of David Pattison

A few of HMCS PATRIOT's crew, mid 1920s

 

R.R. Pattison, 3rd from right

 

From the collection of Ralph Reginald Pattison

 

Courtesy of David Pattison

 

 

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