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Monument to HMS / HMCS Aurora

by Christopher J. Cole 2016

HMCS Aurora (Photo from the Canadian Navy Heritage website. Image Negative Number E–6546–2. )

HMS Aurora was an Arethusa–class light cruiser built at Devonport Dockyard, and commissioned into the Royal Navy in September 1914. She served with the Grand Fleet 1914–1916. She was teh first ship in action at the Battle of the Dogger Bank in 1915 and was present at the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet in November 1918.

Following the war, Aurora was placed in reserve and in 1920, the cruiser was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy. After her arrival in Canada she set out on a training cruise to Esquimalt BC via teh Panama Canal and returning to Halifax. Her service with the Royal Canadian Navy was brief, being paid off in 1922. The cruiser was sold for scrap in 1927 and broken up by A.A. Lasseque, Sorel, QC.

Plaque outside the Merchant Navy, Army, Navy & Air Force (ANAF) Hall at Sidney BC. (Photo from the Christopher James Cole collection. )

There is an error on the plaque. She was the first ship into action at the battle of Dogger Bank, 24 Jan 1915, not Jutland.

HMCS Aurora, Quick–Fire 4–inch/45 Mk IV Gun, on display in front of the Merchant Navy, Army, Navy & Air Force (ANAF) Hall, 9831 4th St, Sidney, BC. (Photo from the Christopher James Cole collection. )

This gun was one of six of this type carried by the Aurora.

HMCS Aurora, Quick–Fire 4–inch/45 Mk IV Gun, on display in front of the Merchant Navy, Army, Navy & Air Force (ANAF) Hall, 9831 4th St, Sidney, BC. (Photo from the Christopher James Cole collection. )

To quote from this article please cite:

Cole, Christopher J. (2016) Monument to HMS / HMCS Aurora. Nauticapedia.ca 2016. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Monument_Aurora.php

Site News: November 20, 2024

The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 94,591 vessel histories (with 16,203 images and 13,900 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters).

Vessel records are currently being reviewed and updated with more than 40,000 processed so far this year.

The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,599 entries (with 3996 images).

Thanks to contributor Mike Rydqvist McCammon for the hundreds of photos he has contributed to illustrate British Columbia’s floating heritage.

My very special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.

Also my special thanks to my volunteer content accuracy checker, John Spivey of Irvine CA USA, who continues (almost every day for the last couple of years) to proof read thousands of Nauticapedia vessel histories and provided input to improve more than 14,000 entries. His attention to detail has been a huge unexpected bonus in improving and updating the vessel detail content.

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