H.M.S. Hermes (1919)

H.M.S. Hermes (1919)
Pendant Number:	95 (Jun 1920)^[1]
Builder:	Armstrong^[2]
Laid down:	15 Jan, 1918^[3]
Launched:	11 Sep, 1919^[4]
Commissioned:	19 Feb, 1924^[5]
Sunk:	9 Apr, 1942^[6]
Fate:	Air Attack

H.M.S. Hermes was an aircraft carrier completed for the Royal Navy in 1924, being the first ship designed from the outset to operate aircraft in a proper manner – being able to recover aircraft while at sea.

Service

Hermes was commissioned at Devonport on 19 February, 1924 under the command of Captain The Hon. Arthur Stopford. By 1925, she was in the Mediterranean.^[7]

Re-commissioned at Portsmouth on 3 June 1925.^[8]

The ship succumbed to Japanese air attack off Ceylon in World War II.

Captains

Dates of appointment are provided when known.

Captain The Hon. Arthur Stopford, 20 February, 1923^[9] – 15 July, 1925
Captain Cecil P. Talbot, 15 July, 1925^[10] – 17 August, 1926^[11]
Captain Ralph Eliot, 25 July, 1926^[12] – 2 December, 1927^[13]
Captain Geoffrey Hopwood, 2 December, 1927 – February, 1929
Captain James D. Campbell, 17 January, 1929 – 2 October, 1930
Captain Edmond J. G. Mackinnon, October, 1930^[14] – March, 1932^[15]
Commander Francis R. Baxter, 27 December, 1931^[16] (temporary, pending Mackenzie's arrival)
Captain William B. Mackenzie, 8 January, 1932 – April, 1934
Captain The Hon. George Fraser, 15 August, 1934^[17] – 11 October, 1937^[18]
Captain FitzRoy E. P. Hutton, 25 August, 1939^[19] – 4 June, 1940
Captain Richard F. J. Onslow, May, 1940^[20] – April, 1942^[21] (killed when ship sank)