HMS Diamond (D35)

HMS Diamond - July 1953

HMS Diamond was a Daring-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy. She was built by John Brown & Company in Clydebank, Scotland, and launched on 14 June 1950. This ship was John Brown & Company's first all-welded ship (as opposed to the rivetted construction more commonly used up to that time).

In 1953 Diamond took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.[3] On 29 September 1953, she sustained severe bow damage in a collision with the cruiser Swiftsure during Exercise Mariner, held off the coast of Iceland.[4][5]

In 1956 Diamond was sent into Port Said to show the flag prior to the Franco-British assault, but the Egyptian government was unmoved and she sailed out to join the main attack force for the Suez landings at Port Said. She underwent a refit in 1959 at Chatham Dockyard. In 1964 she was involved in another collision, this time with the frigate Salisbury, in the English Channel during a naval demonstration.[6]

In 1970, she became a dockside training ship in Portsmouth and remained in this role until replaced by the destroyer Kent. She was scrapped in Rainham in Kent in 1981.

Daring-class destroyer HMS Diamond (D35) steaming past the Mayflower II.