HMS Kimberley

History

United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Kimberley
Builder:	John I. Thornycroft & Company, Woolston, Hampshire
Laid down:	17 January 1938
Launched:	1 June 1939
Commissioned:	21 December 1939
Motto:	Post tenbras lux : 'After darkness light'
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 30 March 1949
Notes:	Badge: On a Field barry wavy of six White and Blue a diamond with rays White, charges with a lion rampant Black
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type:	K-class destroyer
Displacement:	1,690 long tons (1,720 t) (standard) 2,330 long tons (2,370 t) (deep load)
Length:	356 ft 6 in (108.66 m) o/a
Beam:	35 ft 9 in (10.90 m)
Draught:	12 ft 6 in (3.81 m) (deep)
Installed power:	44,000 shp (33,000 kW) 2 × Admiralty 3-drum boilers
Propulsion:	2 × shafts; 2 × geared steam turbines
Speed:	36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph)
Range:	5,500 nmi (10,200 km; 6,300 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement:	183 (218 for flotilla leaders)
Sensors and processing systems:	ASDIC
Armament:	3 × twin QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mk XII guns 1 × quadruple QF 2-pounder (40 mm) anti-aircraft guns 2 × quadruple QF 0.5-inch (12.7 mm) Mk III anti-aircraft machineguns 2 × quintuple 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 20 × depth charges, 1 × rack, 2 × throwers

HMS Kimberley was a K-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She served in the Second World War and survived it, being one of only two of the K-class to do so. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Kimberley, after the town of Kimberley, Northern Cape, site of the Siege of Kimberley in the Second Boer War. She was adopted by the civil community of Eastwood, Kimberley and Selston, Nottinghamshire in 1942 after a successful Warship Week campaign for National Savings.

Kimberley was ordered from the yards of John I. Thornycroft & Company, Woolston, Hampshire under the 1937 Programme. She was laid down on 17 January 1938 as Yard No 1179. She was launched on 1 June 1939 and commissioned on 21 December, though final works were not completed until early the following year.

Kimberley spent January 1940 carrying out contractors' trials. She finished the trials and had completed storing and weapon system calibrations by February, and took passage to Scapa Flow to join the units of the Home Fleet. On 21 February she was deployed with the cruiser HMS Manchester in the North Western Approaches, carrying out patrols to intercept merchant shipping returning to Germany and commerce raiders attempting to attack Atlantic convoys. During this patrol, the two ships captured the German freighter Wahehe. Kimberley provided a boarding party and the ship was taken into Kirkwall as a prize.

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