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HMS Albion
HMS Albion at dock by Adrian Jones
Former WO1(GSM) Peter Padley MBE
There have been 7 ships of the Royal Navy that have borne the name Albion. The first HMS Albion was a 74 gun third rate ship launched at Deptford in May 1793.
Sail gave way to steam with the launch of the fifth HMS Albion in June 1898. A Canopus Pre-Dreadnaught Class Battleship she weighed 12,950 tons and saw service throughout WWI before being scrapped in 1919.
The sixth ship to be named Albion was a Centaur Class Light Fleet Aircraft Carrier. She was built on the River Tyne by Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson weighing 22,000 tons. Albion was launched in 1947 but did not join the fleet until September 1954 when she became the flagship of the Flag Officer Aircraft Carriers.
HMS Albion was operated as an Aircraft Carrier from 1954 to 1962. During this period deployed to the Mediterranean where the embarked air group attacked Egyptian airfields and gave air cover to the airborne landings. In 1958 she moved to the Far East where she would operate until being paid off in preparation for conversion to a Commando Carrier.
Re-commissioned in 1962 Albion returned to the Far East Fleet where she undertook operations during the Indonesian Confrontation in support of troops deployed ashore in Borneo. She covered the withdrawal from Aden in 1967 and gave similar support to the withdrawal from Singapore in 1971.
On return from the Far East she deployed on exercises to the Mediterranean, North Atlantic and Canada. In 1973 Albion was sold and eventually broken up at Faslane Naval Base.
The current ship to bear the name Albion was laid down in 1998 at Barrow-in-Furness and commissioned in June 2003 by Princess Anne, The Princess Royal. She weighs 18,500 tons and is an Albion Class Landing Platform Dock (LPD) ship capable of mounting amphibious operations by sea and air. Albion’s deployments since entering service with the Royal Navy have typically been on exercises in Norway, USA and Europe.
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