 The Old Boys association, the Conway Club, is probably one of the
largest such organisations in the world today with members spread worldwide. It publishes
a 50 page newsletter in small print, full of extraordinary stories of old Conways, being
in effect a history of the Commonwealth navies and the British merchant fleet in this
century.A few famous old Conways are Matthew Webb, the first swimmer of the English
Channel; Warrington Baden-Powell, co-founder of the Boys Scouts movement with his more
famous brother; John Masefield, Britain's Poet Laureate who wrote a history of the ship
and New Chum, a story of a cadet’s life, and much poetry
about the old ship; and Buster Crabbe, the famous RN frogman who came
to a mysterious end in Portsmouth harbour while carrying out an underwater
inspection of a Russian cruiser.
HMS Queen Elizabeth
She was built in Portsmouth dockyard and commissioned in January 1915. Her ship class was
named after her. It was a class of revolutionary new battleships with not only heavy
armour but a fast speed. Oscar Parkes writes that this class of battleship was one the
best all-round designs ever produced by England. She was present at the bombardment of the
Dardanelles forts in 1915. She did not take in the Battle of Jutland but later became
flagship of the British Grand Fleet. All of England’s famous admirals of both wars
served in her.
In the thirties, she was given a major refit and upgrading. She was gutted except for
the main engines and her 15 inch batteries. After her refit, she was 33,000 tons fully
loaded with eight 15-inch and twenty 4.5-inch guns in five turrets on each side with
subsidiary AA armament and the latest radar. Her maximum speed was 25 knots with a heavy
13 inch steel protection shield at the waterline and protection in other areas. She was
the most up-to-date battleship in the navy at this time, before the advent of the King
George V class. She became flagship of the Mediterranean fleet and was in the battle of
Crete, was later seriously damaged and, after a refit in the States, became the flagship
of the Far East fleet.
HMS Jervis
 She was
probably the most famous RN destroyer of the war. She was designed as a leader and was the
first of a radically new class with twin 4.7-inch turrets (six guns) and a tonnage of 1760
as against the previous A to I class destroyers with a tonnage of 1370 tons. She had a
maximum speed of 32 knots. She had more room for crew accomodation. She fought in every
major fleet Mediterranean engagement from 1940 to 1943.
HMS Orion
This cruiser between the light and heavy category of the Leander class was built in the
early thirties to provide a well-armed, fast, comfortable cruiser for overseas stations.
Achilles of this class was famous for the River Plate battle. She carried four turrets of
six-inch guns (eight guns) and 8X4 inch guns in four turrets with a speed of 32 knots.
She had a distinquished career fighting in the Mediterranean battles of Calabria and
Matapan, and at Greece, Crete, Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, Normandy, the south of France and
the relief of Greece. Churchill and his staff stayed on board from 30 January to 2nd
February 1945 in Grand Harbour, Malta, holding talks in preparation for the Yalta
conference.She was the flagship of six admirals.
HMS Bulolo
She was a 6,267 ton 250 passenger cargo ship of the Burns, Philp Shipping Company in the
Australian South Pacific trade. She was converted to an armed merchant cruiser in 1939,
then a HQ landing ship. She directed the landings on North Africa, Sicily, Anzio and
Normandy. She was scrapped in China in 1968 after thirty years service under innumerable
merchant captains and six admirals.
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