East Indies Station

Commander-in-Chief, East Indies
HMS Swiftsure at gunnery practice on the East Indies Station in the summer of 1913
Active	1744–1941
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Navy
Type	Fleet
Part of	Admiralty
Garrison/HQ	Trincomalee

The Commander-in-Chief, East Indies was a British Royal Navy admiral and the formation subordinate to him from 1865 to 1941. Even in official documents, the term East Indies Station was often used.

The East Indies Station was established as a Royal Navy command in 1744. From 1831–1865, the East Indies and the China Station were a single command known as the East Indies and China Station. The East Indies Station, established in 1865, covered the Indian Ocean (excluding the waters around the Dutch East Indies, South Africa and Australia) and included the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. These responsibilities did not imply territorial claims but rather that the navy would actively protect British trading interests.

The East Indies Station had bases at Colombo, Trincomalee, Bombay, Basra and Aden. In response to increased Japanese threats, the separate East Indies Station was merged with the China Station in December 1941, to form the Eastern Fleet.

In early May 1941, the Commander-in-Chief directed forces to support the pursuit of Pinguin, the German raider that eventually sank after the Action of 8 May 1941 against HMS Cornwall.

On 7 December 1941, cruisers on the station included the heavy cruisers Cornwall, Dorsetshire, and Exeter; the light cruisers Glasgow, Danae, Dauntless, Durban, Emerald and Enterprise (some sources also place the heavy cruiser Hawkins as being on station on that date, while others report her being under refit and repair in the UK between early November 1941 & May 1942), and six armed merchant cruisers. Also assigned to the station was 814 Naval Air Squadron at China Bay, Ceylon, which unit was at that time equipped with Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers.