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The second HMS Verulam was adopted by St Albans during a Warship Week held in February 1942, a year and a half before she was completed on 10 December 1943. It seems appropriate to begin with her adoption before providing a brief outline of her wartime service escorting Arctic Convoys to North Russia, the invasion fleet to Sword Beach during the Normandy landings and her  dramatic part in the sinking of the Japanese cruiser in  May 1945.

Between October 1941 and the end of March 1942, Warships Weeks were organised in cities, towns and villages throughout Great Britain.  The intention was to raise a sum by investment or deposit in all types of war savings representing the cost of building one of His Majesty’s ships ranging from the smallest to the largest vessels.  Once the target had been raised the community adopted the vessel along with its crew and the bond was strengthened by presentations in recognition of the money raised. Adoption plaques were presented by the Admiralty to the community and a plaque presented by the community to the adopted vessel. Links were maintained by the writing of letters and the provision of comforts and whenever possible visits were arranged to the adopting area.

The ships offered for adoption by the Admiralty often had no connection with the town and the money raised would be used to build a newer more modern warship with a different name. The first HMS Verulam had been sunk in the Gulf of Finland by a British mine on 4 September 1919 and was not available for adoption. An appropriate alternative would have been HMS St Albans, "the ship which fought under four flags", but she was transferred to the Royal Norwegian Navy as HNoMS St Albans under the Norwegian flag and with a Norwegian crew on 14 April 1941. The Admiralty decided that St Albans should "be allocated" HMS Scimitar, an old S Class destroyer, and this is the ship named in the souvenir programme of events held in St Albans during its Warships Week from 14 - 21 February 1942, and reported in the Hertfordshire  Advertiser the day before Warship Week began.

The Mayor, John Tacchi, died in Office aged 60 St Albans Museum, Ref. 1981.3736

A souvenir programme of the events with an emotive image of German troops outside the Abbey and in St Albans market place on its cover was published, paid for by advertising by local companies, some still trading today. A Miss Lucy Silvester, the daughter of a wealthy vet who knew all the landed gentry was involved and no doubt the Earl of Verulam whose name was linked to the first HMS Verulam would have given his support.

The huge amount raised at the inaugural luncheon in the Assembly Room in the Town Hall, presided over by the Mayor John Taccchi on Saturday, was due to the backing of businessmen who saw this as a safe investment - should the war be won.  There was an exhibitions of military equipment, model ships and photographs of the war at sea on display in the Town Hall.  On Sunday the Mayor, Mr J. Tacchi,  and civic dignitaries with military units walked in a procession from the Market Place to the Abbey where a service was held before returning via Sumpter Yard and Holywell Hill to the Town Hall where massed bands played and the Mayor addressed the assembly.  There was a "Grand Civil Defence Dance" at the Town Hall on Wednesday, a Bridge Drive at the Town Hall on Thursday (organised by Miss Silvester) followed by a "Celebrity Concert". Selling centres throughout the town were open on Friday and Saturday and in the evening there was a dance at the Town Hall organised by the "Youth Organisations of St Albans". Schools made model warships and posters and competed for prizes and there was a fancy dress parade at the School of Art in Victoria Street on Saturday afternoon. The old Town Hall in St Peter's Street was converted into a very attractive Museum and Art Gallery in 2018.

St Albans School set each class the target of raising £50 which was easily exceeded. Malcolm Mitchell described his contribution to Warships Week in an article for the Old Albanian Bulletin in November 2007:

"The country was being encouraged during 'Warships Week'in 1942 to save by buying National Savings Certificates (I believe they cost 15/- each towards the cot of buying a battleship and St Albans School was doing its bit. Each form had a target of £50  (quite a lot in 1941) to add to the 'War Effort'.
    'Bob' Tanner had encouraged us to prepare posters for the week and my contribution (shown here) was put on the classroom wall for the week. The only problem was that I had underestimated the enthusiasm for the scheme and 'Remove B' wildly over ran their target so that the 'speed indicator' was inadequate for the speed achieved!"

John Tacchi, the Mayor of St Albans, came to the School to view the posters. He sent his son to the school and was a School Governor and had started a second term as Mayor when he died on 27 November 1942 aged 60. He was the founder of the building firm Tacchi and Burgess at 2a Lower Dagnall Street (now a residential mews) which still trades in the city under different owners as T and G Heritage.

Ten year old David Wade of Salisbury Avenue made a fine collection of of model aeroplanes and ships and collected more than £4 by exhibiting them to his friends and had his photograph published in the Hertfordshire Advertiser on the 27th February.  David Wade and his friends may still be alive and if they are and see this page do get in touch and share your memories of Warships Week with others.

The adoption of HMS Verulam (R28) by St Albans

The St Albans "Warships Week" on 14 - 21 February 1942 raised £635,999 (£8.12s 0d per head), three times the target figure, and the Admiralty decided that St Albans could adopt a new destroyer being built under the "War Emergency Programme" which would be named HMS Verulam. Pershore in Worcestershire had raised nearly £200,000, twice the cost of a new corvette, in their Warship Week from 15 - 22 November, 1941 but had not been told her name. The Tewkesbury Register reported on Saturday 18 April 1942 that HMS Scimitar, had been allocated to Pershore. John Hemmings, a ten year old schoolboy in Pershore, has vivid memories of Warships Week and has kept the memory of HMS Scimitar alive in Pershore.

Lt Cdr William Scott Thomas DSC RN, the first Commanding  Officer of HMS Verulam, wrote to James Walter Grimston (1880 -1949), the 4th Earl of Verulam, on Wednesday 12 November 1943 requesting his permission for the ship to adopt the family's motto and in his reply on 18 November the Earl wrote:


The ship's crest combined the arms of the City of St Albans, a Saltire (St Andrews Cross) with a sword laid on top pointing upwards,  with the the name of the Earldom and the motto of Francis Bacon, the first Earl of Verulam: "We know there are better things in store”. The launch of HMS Verulam in October 1943 led to the establishment of the Verulam Sea Cadet Unit in St Albans.

Admiralty Fleet Order (AFO) 4234 Warship Weeks - Ships Adopted recorded the adoption of HMS Verulam by St Albans in the week ending 21 February 1942 but the Admiralty did not permit any communication between civic authorities adopting warships until one month after the date of commissioning (AFO 1327/42). HMS Verulam had been under construction at Govan on the Clyde since September 1941 but was not completed until 10 September 1943 and was commissioned on 12 December. The presentation of plaques by Admiral Sir Lionel Halsey on behalf of the Admiralty to the City of St Albans and the Rural District of St Albans did not take place until 11 February 1944, nearly two years after her adoption.

As a resident of St Albans I thought it appropriate to include Verulam (R28) here on the 100th anniversary of the loss of the first HMS Verulam even though she was not a member of the V & W Class of destroyers.The second HMS Verulam was built under the War Emergency Programme whose ships all had names beginning with V or W. Five inherited names previously assigned to  V&W class destroyers which had been sunk.  The emergency destroyers were armed with four 4.7 inch guns, one twin Bofors 40mm or Pompom, two quadruple 21 inch torpedo tubes and depth charges. After the war most of them were given a new lease of life by being converted into Type 15 Class Frigates. Click on the link or further details of the reuse of V & W Class names.  To find more about Warship Weeks see Peter Schofield’s article on ‘National Savings and Warship Weeks’.

The exchange of plaques commemorating the adoption of HMS Verulam

The presentation of plaques by Admiral Sir Lionel Halsey on behalf of the Admiraly to the City of St Albans and the Rural District of St Albans and of a smaller plaque to the Admiral for mounting and display in HMS Verulam was prominently reported in the Hertfordshire Advertiser on 11 February 1944. The crests were exact replicas of the heavy bronze screen plaque mounted on HMS Verulam but were made of iron with "Nelson's Crown" cast in brass. From 1940 onwards these screen plaques were always circular but before the war the screen plaques of destroyers were shield shaped. Since HMS Verulam was commissioned in 1943 the screen plaque was round and the crests presented to the councils on the wooden shields were also round as shown in the photograph below.

Councillor Anthony Rowlands, arranged for the transfer of the crest of HMS Verulamfrom Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies (HALS) at County Hall to St Albans District Council in July 2020 and the Chief Executive authorised its mounting on a wooden shield similar in shape but reduced in size to match the proportions of the aluminium copy. The St Albans District Council was fortunate to secure the services of Dave Palmer in repainting the crest in the colours specified by the Admiralty and making a wooden shield based on a tracing of the shield on which the crest of HMS Vanity was mounted when it was adopted by Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire.

Dave Palmer is a fomer submariner, diesel and nuclear, who started making badges for the submarine museum in 1979 when he was in charge of the Alliance before she came out of the water and was put on display at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport. Over the years he has supplied badges to museums, ships and ship associations. He had a special interest in the unofficlal badges produced before 1918 when the Admiraty specified their design and has the largest data base of them in the country.  For health reasons he has largely given up casting reproductions of ships crests but still supplies bare badges for people to finish themselves.

Alison Orde in the Mayor's Office of St Albans Council liaised with Dave Palmer and arranged for it to be mounted on the wall beneath the ship's bell of HMS Verulamoutside the Council Chamber in the Civic Offices where it will not only be seen by the Councillors but will also be on public view once the Corona Pandemic is over. I met Alison Orde and Martin Dismore outside the Council Offices in April 2021 and Martin was photographed ringing the bell of his former ship. He has lived in St Albans since he left the Royal Navy in 1996 and made a seamless transfer to working for the Ministry of Defence in London.

Bill Forster
V & W Destroyer Association
St Albans AL1 1DH