HMS Verdun Ships Bell

HMS Verdun was an 'V' class destroyer launched on 21 August 1917 that went on to see service in both World Wars until scrapped in 1946. She helped escort the German High Seas Fleet (Operation ZZ) to Scapa Flow in 1918.
On the 8th December 1920 she was assigned to carry the coffin of the Unknown Warrior from Quai Chanzy Boulogne-sur-Mer. She arrived on 10th November, slightly late to be met by the funeral procession coming from the medievalcastle where the coffin had been laying in state. The procession was lead by the Massed Cavalry Bands of the French Army, with a thousand schoolchildren and a whole French Army Division.
Marshal Foch and General Macdonough saluted as the coffin was piped onboard with an Admirals salute. Verdun then set sail to Dover, escorted out of French waters by five cruisers and accompanied by a 19 gun Field Marshals salute. In British waters Verdun was then escorted by 6 Royal Navy Destroyers, HMS Witherington, Wanderer, Whitshed, Wyvern, Wolverine and Veteran.
When Verdun arrived at Dover Admiralty Pier she also received a 19 gun salute from Dover Castle. The coffin was then transferred to the Cavell Van by a bearer party of 6 high ranking officers escorted by the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers for the rail journey to London Victoria.

At the start of the Second World War, Verdun was taken out of reserve and converted into an anti aircraft escort and served escorting conveys on the east coast of Britain and the Home Fleet on Arctic convoys. On VE day she again went into reserve and in 1946 was scrapped. Her ships bell was presented to Westminster where it is now mounted on a column adjacent to the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior.

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Source

• Text: Sharky Ward
• Photos: Anthony (Sharky) Ward