She was conceived in the 1938 Naval Estimates, the first ship of her name, a cruiser of the FIJI class. Laid down on the 24th July, 1939, at the Swan Hunter’s Yard at Wallsend-on-Tyne, she was launched on the 30th November, 1940, by Lady Hilbery and finally completed on the 21st February, 1942.
GAMBIA had a short spell in the Home Fleet with the Eighteenth Cruiser Squadron but sailed to join the Eastern Fleet in June that year and spent a year in the Fourth Cruiser Squadron. In May 1943, she returned to the United Kingdom for refit, calling at the territory of the Gambia on the way, where West African Chiefs in full regalia led thousands of their subjects to visit the ship named after their colony.
In September, 1943, she was commissioned as a unit of the Royal New Zealand Navy and after a further short spell in the Home Fleet, during which she operated against blockade runners in the Atlantic, she returned to the Indian Ocean to rejoin the Eastern Fleet. She took part in the carrier strikes on Sabang (1944) and Sourabaya and in a later bombardment of the former. After a brief visit to New Zealand, she joined up with the Pacific Fleet and took part in the final stages of the great naval operation’s that brought the Pacific War to a close. In August 1945 she anchored in Tokyo Bay and was present during the signing of the Japanese surrender.
Early in 1946 GAMBIA reverted to the Royal Navy and sailed for the United Kingdom where she was refitted at Devonport before going out once more to the Pacific, to join the Fifth Cruiser Squadron whence she returned at the end of 1947. She re-commissioned in March, 1950, and since then has served a series of commissions in the Mediterranean and the East Indies and completed her final commission as Flagship of the last British Naval Commander-in-Chief, East Indies station in 1958. Gambia was broken up in 1968.
W. L. C
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Displacement 8,530 tons standard, 10,450 tons deep load.
Overall length 555.5 ft (169.19 metres)
Beam 62 ft (18.88 metres)
Draft 16.5 ft.
Engines 4 – shaft Parsons geared turbines, 4 Admiralty 3-drum boilers, 72,500 hp.
Fuel 1,613 – 1,700 tons oil.
Speed 33 knots
Number of 6" guns 9 (was 12 prior to the removal of a turret) in three triple gunned turrets.
A.A. guns 4" Eight
A.A. guns 40 mm. Eighteen
Types of Radar Nine
N.B. – Radar
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June 1958 – on Station in the East Indies)
It is never easy to gauge in absolute terms the degree of success or of failure of a commission except when there has been some outstanding event which has dwarfed all else. Personally, I will always look back on the visit of Her Majesty the Queen, in May, 1957, as our big moment, but it came too early in the commission for me to be able to look on it as a triumphant climax to our endeavours – we hardly knew one another by sight then – and its significance and excitement were lost in the work-up and exercises that followed.
To view our commission in comparative terms is also difficult, since we’ve never really had anyone quite like ourselves to compare with. There has throughout been an element of unbalance, one way or the other, in all our competitive efforts, whether they have been in gunnery or seamanship worlds, or on the field of sport. Out regatta win at Karachi was really satisfying, but I write this before our arrival at Trincomalee so I do not know the results of our efforts there.
We must, I think, fall back on our own appraisal of whether we have done well what we set out to do. Such an appraisal must be honest and not gloss over our failures. While on the East Indies Station, our first concern has been to back up the Commander-in-Chief in every way we could. In in that endeavour I believe we have been extremely successful. We have been ready whenever called upon for usual and unusual jobs. We leave behind us a reputation for cheerfulness, good manners and good behaviour, which I do not believe has been equalled before. We have never let disappointment get us down, we have never crowed loudly in success.
One of our most remarkable achievements has been to keep the ship in a high state of mechanical and electrical efficiency for eleven months without dockyard assistance, and without proper self-maintenance periods, an unusual feat these days.
Above all, however, I hope everyone has thoroughly enjoyed the commission. We will all have different memories of it, but I personally will never forget the good friends I have made on board during this, my last sea-going command. I hope sincerely that if you have the time, you will occasionally let me know how the world goes with you. Finally, the best of luck to everyone.
Captain E. T. L. Dunsterville, R. N.
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In June 1958 a ship’s magazine was published. Some information in this web page is extracted from this magazine and is as follows: -
In this magazine we have attempted to recount a little of the story of H.M.S.Gambia‘s General Service Commission from 1st May, 1957, to the date of going to print in June, 1958, with a forecast of the pleasure to come during the East African Cruise. (As with all great plans of mice and men, and a restless Middle-East, Murphy’s law stepped in and the East African cruise was cancelled).
I wish to thank all the contributors of articles, drawings and photographs; Ldg. Coder O’Brien for his typing; Mssrs. Brogson for many photographs; and the publishers, The Ceylon Daily News for their help and co-operation.
I am particularly indebted to my Assistant Editor, O. A. Fields for his invaluable assistance in the checking and the arrangement of all the proofs.
My apologies in advance for any errors and omissions.
I hope that you may find as much interest and pleasure in the reading of this magazine as I have had in its preparation.