Also known as
GRAFTON
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Wikipedia vessel details
Secondary-source table data; verify against primary records where available.
- Name
- HMS Grafton (H89)
- Pennant number
- H89
- Flag
- Royal Navy
- Description
- Destroyer
- Built
- 1936
- Tonnage
- 1,335
- Commanding officer
- Cdr. Cecil Robinson, RN (killed 29 May); Lt. Hugh McRea, RN (the First Lieutenant)
- Trips to Dunkirk
- 2
- Troops landed
- 277
- Notes
- Sunk by E-boat torpedo in the Channel on 29 May
Dunkirk-related passages from the linked page
HMS Grafton (H89) was a G-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy during the mid-1930s. During the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939 the ship spent considerable time in Spanish waters, enforcing the non-intervention measures agreed by Britain and France. After the beginning of World War II she was transferred from the Mediterranean Fleet to Great Britain for escort and contraband inspection duties. Grafton was refitting when the Norwegian Campaign began in April 1940, but the ship escorted convoys to Norway once her refit was completed. She evacuated British troops from the Dunkirk bridgehead in May, but was sunk by a German submarine after she stopped to rescue survivors from another British destroyer. During the Siege of Calais, Grafton escorted the light cruisers Arethusa and Galatea as they provided naval gunfire support for the 30th Motor Brigade on 26 May. The following day she evacuated over 1,600 troops from the beaches of La Panne and Bray, northeast of Dunkirk. On the morning of 29 May, she stopped to rescue survivors from the destroyer Wakeful, which had been torpedoed and sunk earlier that morning by the German E-boat S-30. While rescuing survivors from Wakeful off Nieuwpoort, Belgium, Grafton was struck in the stern by a torpedo from the German submarine U-62. This seriously damaged the ship, and also triggered a secondary explosion which damaged the bridge, killing the captain and another officer. Thirteen ratings and the canteen manager were also killed. The ship's back was broken, but she remained afloat long enough for all survivors to be rescued by the destroyer Ivanhoe and the transport Malines. Ivanhoe sank Grafton with naval gunfire, as she was too badly damaged to be towed to safety.[8] Winser, John de D. (1999). B.E.F. Ships Before, At and After Dunkirk. Gravesend, Kent: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-91-6. 29 May: HMS Grafton, HMS Grenade, Lorina, Mona's Queen, HMS Wakeful 30 May: Fenella, Bourrasque, HMS King Orry, Normannia, HMS Cambrian 31 May: Siroco, U-13 29 May: HMS Bideford, HMS Montrose
ORDE Registry
1 record1 potential matching record has been identified.
These records may contain vessel particulars, reported movements, participation assessments, named personnel and source references. A match does not by itself prove that the vessel participated in Operation Dynamo.
“Potential match” means a candidate returned by one or more indexing rules; it is not necessarily an exact identity match. Depending on the source, matching may use a normalised vessel name, a partial text or OCR hit, an alias, or related metadata. Roman-numeral suffixes such as I, II, III, IV and V may be absent, misread or separated from the base name, so records for similarly named vessels can be grouped incorrectly. Multi-word names can also produce candidates where only one significant word matches. Confirm the full name, numeral, vessel type, dimensions, builder, ownership, dates and source context before treating two records as the same vessel.
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Small Craft Service List
0 records0 potential matching records have currently been identified.
Further indexing may identify service-list entries, vessel metadata, source-page references and protected full-size document images. The absence of a current match does not establish that no relevant source exists.
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No Small Craft records.
Red List (1939–40) — OCR
0 records0 potential matching records have currently been identified.
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We are compiling and checking transcriptions, metadata, vessel-name matches, source references and reuse permissions before publishing further detail. This work helps prevent incomplete OCR, historic spelling variations or unverified associations from being presented as established fact.
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Ship Details
These details have been aggregated from multiple sources and may include contemporary records, later recollections, claims or assertions for which no corroborating evidence has been identified. Inclusion does not establish that any account or assertion is accurate. The information may be incomplete, out of date, disputed or incorrect and should be checked against the underlying source records and independent evidence before being relied upon.
No additional ship details available.
Lloyd’s Yacht Register (1939)
Source: Lloyd’s Register Foundation, Heritage & Education Centre, Lloyd’s Register of Yachts 1939, digitised via Internet Archive. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Images have been converted, resized and watermarked for web display; machine-generated table OCR has been added.
No Lloyd’s records.
Document Collections — Tagged Pages
3 pagesImaged document collections containing pages whose OCR text or table data has been tagged with the name GRAFTON. Open a collection to view the page images and transcriptions.
Source: Lloyd’s Register Foundation, Heritage & Education Centre, Lloyd’s Register of Yachts 1939, digitised via Internet Archive. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Images have been converted, resized and watermarked for web display; machine-generated table OCR has been added.
Details
| Hughes, M. B., Tangmere House, Chichester, Sussex. Bos.-Cam.-Ocn. a. White Kitten (P.O.) 7 | Humble, Richard, Grafton, Cove, Dumbartonshire. Nor. a. Coral 32 | m. Fernowl 31 Humphery, Wilfrid, Lands End, Old Bursledon, Hants. | a. Spica (P.O.) 22 Hunt, Ernest, 2, Lime Grove, East Sheen, London, S.W.14.-Mtr. | Hunter, John, Stanneylands, Wilmslow, Manchester.-Ang. Merlin 3 |
Details
| McQuiston, W., 7, Grafton Place, Glasgow, C.1. Tons m. Colleen 15 | Maeder, A., Royal Yacht Club of Egypt, Alexandria, Egypt. Tons Freesia (P.O.) 5 | Main, Leonard G., New Sarum House, Market Place, Salisbury, Wilts. Tons m. Lady Helen 8 | Mallet, R. A., M.C., 21, Upper Mall, London, W.6.-Isi.- Ran.-Tms. Tons a. Fortuna III 7 | Maltby, J. H., 23, Regent's Court, Park Road, London, W.W.1.-Bgs.-Bnm.-Cnq.- Col.(V.C.)-L.S.-Msa.-Mtr.-New.-Nre.- Tem.-Wcf.-Wiv.-Wlt. |
Details
| Olesen, Capt. A., Bernstorfflunds Allé 21, Charlottenlund, Denmark.-Dan.-Kbn. | Olsson, Gösta, Dalagatan le, Stockholm, Sweden. | Orcutt, A. H., Foxbrook House, Rowington, Warwick.-Crn. | Osborne, F. B., Grafton Street, Bond Street, London, W.1.-C.A. | Oswald, W. W., White Knights, St. George's Hill, Weybridge, Surrey.-C.A.-Srn. |
Operation Dynamo Map — Movement Logs
Movements recorded for GRAFTON during the evacuation period, as plotted on the Operation Dynamo map.
| Departed | Route | Arrived | Troops | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | Dover | — | — |
Stationary
HMS report explicitly names this location; a complete dated movement is unavailable
|
TNA ADM 116 4649, page 48 |
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User Contributed Collection
Documents and descriptions supplied by registered researchers. All submissions are reviewed in accordance with our Terms and Conditions.
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