THERE was sadness this morning (April 3) as the former HMS Monmouth was towed out of Portsmouth on its last voyage to be scrapped in Turkey.

It follows news of another blow to the town's 359-year association with the Navy, with a new submarine orginally named Agincourt after the famous battle won by 'Harry of Monmouth' now renamed Achilles, over fears of 'offending the French' – a decision slammed by two former Defence Secretaries and a rear admiral.

Conceived as a Cold War submarine hunter, HMS Monmouth and its crew had close links with the Wye Valley town, with its legacy of six previous ships stretching back to 1666, the year of the Great Fire of London.

Every year on November 1, a service in St Mary's Church remembers the 1914 sinking of the sixth HMS Monmouth at the Battle of Coronel, when the entire crew of 734 were lost.

The last HMS Monmouth was the sixth ship of the Type 23 frigate class and was built by Yarrow shipbuilders on the Clyde, commissioning in 1993.

"The ‘Black Duke’ served all over the world, from the North Atlantic to the Gulf and circumnavigated the globe in 2007.

The independent Navy Lookout website reported that Monmouth’s last major deployment was in 2018 when she accompanied HMS Queen Elizabeth on the Westlant deployment to the US.

“She sailed for the final time in April 2019 and was laid up, ahead of a planned refit,” it said. “This was abandoned as a cost-saving measure and she is the only ship of her class never to have had a mid-life upgrade.

“She languished in Devonport, briefly serving as a harbour training ship, used by replacement crews preparing to take over the Type 23 frigate in the Gulf.

“There were briefly rumours she might be sold to Greece as part of a deal to sell the Hellenic Navy Type 31 frigates, but was subsequently towed to Portsmouth in 2021 and handed over for the final stripping of equipment.

“She never received a proper decommissioning ceremony and was officially withdrawn from RN service on 30 June 2021.

“The ship’s bell was handed over to the mayor of Monmouth for safekeeping, having been on board for the 28 years the ship was in commission, during which time she sailed more than half a million miles and visited over 200 ports.”

At least 2,000 sailors served on board the ship during its lifetime, with the crew awarded the Freedom of Monmouth and last parading through the town in March 2019.

The NL website added: "The long list of Royal Navy warships and RFAs that have been disposed of in the last two decades have mostly ended up at the Leyal scrapyard at Aliaga on Turkey’s Aegean coast, and Monmouth is no exception.”

HMS Monmouth reportedly still boasts the most battle honours of any RN ship name.

The last ship’s bell was formally handed over to the town in 2022 and is currently kept at the Shire Hall.

For more information, see https://www.navylookout.com