#OnThisDay 1921 the Admiralty increased the allowance for milk for ships cats from 1 Shilling to 1 Shilling & Sixpence per week.

Royal Navy

#OnThisDay 1982 Rear Admiral John ‘Sandy’ Woodward is appointed as Falklands Task Force Commander. He transferred his flag from HMS GLAMORGAN to HMS HERMES North of Ascension Island. His account of the war ‘One Hundred Days’ is an excellent account of the campaign.

#OnThisDay 1977 Sailors from HMS DANAE invited the escaped great train robber, Ronnie Biggs, on-board for a beer whilst alongside in Rio de Janeiro. At time it caused political and Royal Navy embarrassment but for me is a great example of the mischievous character of Jack

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#OnThisDay 20 years ago in 2004, Vice Admiral Sir John Roxburgh died aged 84. A successful submarine commander in the Mediterranean during #WW2 , he remains one of the few to sink 2 submarines. He went on to command surface ships up to HMS EAGLE & was FOST Royal Navy 1967-69, retiring in 72

#OnThisDay 100 years ago in 1924 the Battlecruiser HMAS AUSTRALIA was scuttled off Sydney under the conditions of the Washington Treaty which required the British Empire to disarm. She served in the Southern and Northern Hemispheres during #WW1 and was famously mutinied in 1919

#OnThisDay 1856 Royal Navy Officers began wearing gold laced rings on their uniform cuffs consistently for the first time. They had been used sporadically before this but 1856 marks the start of the uniform evolving to what we know today.

#OnThisDay 1855 Boatswain’s Mate John Sullivan won the #VictoriaCross at siege of Sebastopol.He went ahead under fire to place a flag before a hidden Russian battery as an aiming point. He served for 37 years and retired in 1884 but sadly killed himself only 2 months later.

#OnThisDay 20 years ago in 2004 the second of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Landing Ship Dock Auxiliary (LSDA) RFA Mounts Bay was launched by Lady Band at Govan. Exactly a year later the third RFA Cardigan Bay was launched there too. These versatile ships give Royal Navy great service.

#OnThisDay 1919 Royal Navy Battleship HMS MARLBOROUGH rescued Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia, mother of the murdered Tsar Nicholas II and other members of the Romanov family fleeing from the Bolsheviks from the Crimean port of Yalta.

#OnThisDay 2000 Rear Admiral Dennis Campbell died aged 92. He was the RN aviator that pioneered the angled or skewed flight deck, first tested in HMS TRIUMPH and first fitted to U.S. Navy Carrier USS Antietam followed by Royal Navy carrier HMS CENTAUR improving deck operations.

#OnThisDay 1982 HMS HERMES with HMS INVINCIBLE sails from HMNB Portsmouth for #falklands HERMES would assume duties as Flag Ship from GLAMORGAN and by the height of conflict was operating 26 Harriers and 10 Sea Kings from the @FAA_RN & Royal Air Force

#OnThisDay 1581 the legendary English sailor Francis Drake is knighted by Queen Elizabeth on board his ship the Golden Hind at Deptford. Sir Francis Drake had recently returned from his first circumnavigation with untold wealth and riches for Her Majesty.

#OnThisDay 1982 Rear Admiral Sandy Woodward, who was in Gibraltar in HMS ANTRIM, given orders under Operation CORPORATE. At 2130 he was told that Argentina had invaded #Falklands The next day he sailed South In HMS GLAMORGAN with 10 ships to begin the formation of the Task Force

#OnThisDay 100 years ago in 1924 the Fleet Air Arm was named as the Naval element of the Royal Air Force which has been formed from the RN Air Service 6 years earlier. Royal Navy would take control in 1939 but still work very closely with RAF operating joint F35 Squadrons together

#OnThisDay 1979 Rear Admiral Cecil hauled down his Flag for the final time as Flag Officer Malta. The British withdrew after negotiations with Prime Minister Dom Mintoff failed due in part to huge increases in rent for the UK Forces. Present at the ceremony was Colonel Gadaffi.

#OnThisDay or possibly yesterday 1912 Captain Robert Falcon Scott from #plymouth and the remainder of his party died in the #Antarctic whilst returning from the South Pole. His last diary entry (29th March) read

‘For gods sake, look after our people’

A message for us all

#OnThisDay 1940 Flag Officer Submarines, Admiral Sir Max Horton, turned down Churchill's proposal that submarines have relief crews on the grounds that no crew would wish to be separated from their boat. By the 60s dual crews were introduced to the Polaris boats.

#OnThisDay 1941 A Royal Navy Fleet under Admiral Cunningham in HMS WARSPITE inflicted the Italian Navy’s largest ever defeat at the Battle of Cape Matapan off the coast of Greece. Cunningham lost only 3 men and no ships whilst the Italians lost 5 and over 2,300 men. #remember

#OnThisDay 2018 the Royal Navy's only LPH, HMS OCEAN was decommissioned in the presence of the Queen at HMNB Devonport She was sold shortly after to Marinha do Brasil where she serves today as the NAM Atlantico.