HMS Glory (R62)
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Builder: | Harland and Wolff, Belfast |
| Laid down: | 27 August 1942 |
| Launched: | 27 November 1943 |
| Commissioned: | 2 April 1945 |
| Decommissioned: | 1956 |
| Fate: | Scrapped in Inverkeithing, Scotland 1961 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Colossus class aircraft carrier |
| Displacement: | 13,190 long tons (13,400 t) |
| Length: | |
| Beam: | 80 ft (24 m) |
| Draught: |
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| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 25 kn (46 km/h; 29 mph) |
| Range: | 12,000 nmi (22,000 km; 14,000 mi) at 14 kn (26 km/h; 16 mph) |
| Complement: | 1,300 (including air group) |
| Armament: |
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| Aircraft carried: | 48 |
HMS Glory (R62) was a Colossus-class aircraft carrier of the British Royal Navy laid down on 27 August 1942 by Harland and Wolff at Belfast. She was launched on 27 November 1943 by Lady Cynthia Brooke, wife of the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.
The ship was commissioned on 2 April 1945, and left for the Pacific with an air wing of Barracudas (837 Naval Air Squadron) and Corsairs (1831 Naval Air Squadron). At Sydney, she joined the 11th Aircraft Carrier Squadron of the British Pacific Fleet as the war was ending. Glory came to Rabaul shortly thereafter on 6 September 1945 to accept the surrender of the Japanese garrison there.
One member of her crew on this first voyage was Charles Causley, the Cornish poet and broadcaster, who served as a Chief Petty Officer Coder. He subsequently published two poems about the ship and this period: 'HMS Glory' (a description, in the ship's personified own 'voice', of Belfast and of its departure from that city for the Far East) and 'HMS Glory at Sydney' (a longer piece from the writer's own perspective reminiscing about his experience of the ship's spell in Australia, and his shipmates). In various prose pieces, he also describes several other aspects and episodes of the time, such as the Japanese surrender.
After the surrender at Rabaul, Glory assisted in the retaking of Hong Kong, and then went to Australia and Canada in the British equivalent of Operation Magic Carpet. The ship returned to the United Kingdom in 1947 and was then placed in reserve. In November 1949, the ship was taken out of reserve and fully returned to service just over a year later in December 1950.
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