Photograph of the ships bell of HMS Kent in the North Quire Transept.

Ship bell of HMS Rochester 1932

The bell of HMS Rochester hangs in the North Quire Transept.

The bell itself is inscribed:

PRESENTED TO
H.M.S. ROCHESTER
BY THE CITIZENS OF ROCHESTER
ON HER COMMISSIONING
MARCH 1932

HMS Rochester was a sloop of 1,105 tons of the Shoreham class, laid down at Chatham in 1930; undocked 16 July 1931. She was commissioned at Chatham for the Africa station but in 1939 was sent to the East Indies.

HMS Rochester, photograph from the Imperial War Museum, from a copy in the scrapbook of R. J. Trett, Rochester Cathedral Chapter Library.

For the greater part of the Second World War she was on escort duties, during which time she suffered underwater damage after a collision with the S.S. Longford.

In 1942 whilst off the Azores she shared in the sinking of 0-82 with the Tamarisk, and in July 1943 she shared the sinking of U-135 with the Mignonette. On 31 May 1944 she was damaged in a collision with the Hart in heavy fog., and was taken into Devonport fop repair.

In 1945 she ended her active service and was transferred to Portsmouth Navigation School where she remained until 1950.

On 6th January 1951 she was sold for breaking up. Her bell was received into the keeping of the cathedral by Dean Crick, himself a chaplain general to the Fleet.

From the notebooks ‘The Naval and Military Memorials of Rochester Cathedral’ (1979)
by Roy Trett, OBE, TD,
Rochester Cathedral Chapter Library

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