King George VI World Tour (Complete)

[Phodgetts]

I hope someone here will be able to help me identify the ship in this image. I have tried Goggling the subject, but nothing of note is turning up.

The story behind it according to my cousin is that after WW2 King George VI went on a world tour. My cousins father was in the navy during WW2, and served aboard the ship that K G VI used during his world tour. In this image taken during the tour my cousins father, Alexander Knight, is in the front row, forth in from the right.

I do not know if the image has been taken at the bow or stern of the ship. Just in case anyone wants a better scan, this is the only image I have available.

Does anyone know which ship the King used

[Woody32]

Could it be this one?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Vanguard_(1944)


Taken from the above link...

"She performed various duties as flagship, training ship, and even as a "Royal Yacht", when, in 1947, she took the royal family of George VI to South Africa. This was the first time his daughter Elizabeth II, then a princess, ever left Britain.The ship took 17 days to reach South Africa."

[Phodgetts]

Thanks for the link woody  ....... very difficult to tell. In my picture the barrel caps look to have HMS ? on them, but the image is not good enough to decipher the name. From the info about the vessel being used as a "Royal Yacht" it may well be Vanguard. Hopefully others will be able to add some comments or thoughts about the subject. Thanks again for your help.

Philip

[Phodgetts]

Just bouncing this topic up after the holiday weekend. 

[deryckjohn]

It does not look like the Vanguard as there are only 2 main guns that can be seen.

Looking for other royal visits I found a few pictures of the HMS Renown, have a good look at the 4th one down from 1921 on this site.



Deryck

[Phodgetts]

Thanks for the pointer Deryck.... I think you are spot on with it being the Renown. However that puts me in a dilemma because digging a bit deeper the world tour that my Gt Uncle went on must have been with the Prince of Wales (who later became King Edward VIII) who toured the Empire during 1920 - 21. So my cousin that gave me the info seems to have some bits mixed up, sadly he died in February so I cannot discuss this with him. The main picture above I was told was taken after WW2 but my Gt Uncle would have been 46 by then (he was born 1899) and in the above image he is just a lad of about 20! So putting the bits of info together that I have now, he must have travelled the world with the Prince. I also came across a chronology of Renown which was scrapped in 1948 and it did not go on a world tour after WW2, though K G VI did meet President Truman aboard Renown at Plymouth.

How memories and facts get distorted over time . Doesn't make genealogy very easy does it!

Here is a link to the chronology of Renown for anyone that is interested;

http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-02BC-Renown.htm

The image above is taken on the stern of the ship. When the ship was refitted in 1926 the aft gun was removed.

Many thanks to you both for your help.

Philip