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English: Contemporary builder’s model of the battleship HMS Vanguard at the Science Museum, South Kensington, 15 November 2008.

HMS Vanguard was the last battleship in the world to be launched. Originally, the successor to the King George V Class was to be the Lion Class which would have been free of the constraints put on the KGV’s by the London Naval Conference of 1936. The Lion Class would have been formidable 40,550 ton fast battleships armed with 9x16” guns in triple turrets.

Six Lions were planned but the break out of war resulted in only four being ordered and two laid down when the whole programme was cancelled when it was realised construction would take too long, especially with the new 16” guns. Moreover, naval priorities changed – aircraft carriers, destroyers and A/S escorts were needed more than battleships.

However, the Admiralty wanted at least one new battleship to include the latest developments. There happened to be four twin 15” turrets available in store; these had been removed from the WWI light battlecruisers HMS Glorious and Courageous in the 1920’s when they had been converted to aircraft carriers. As it was the main guns which took the longest to manufacture when building a battleship, it was decided to revive the Lion design but adapted to take the 15” turrets, suitably modernised. Although the 15” guns were old, they were excellent weapons and still amongst the best battleship guns in WWI.

The resulting design was that of HMS Vanguard but construction was slowed or paused several times to incorporate the lessons then being learned in the war, for example, the loss of HMS Prince of Wales. In the event, although launched from John Brown’s Clydebank shipyard in 1944, it was not completed until 1946, by which time battleships were considered obsolete; the aircraft carrier was the new capital ship. Nonetheless, the Vanguard was the best battleship the Royal Navy ever had.

HMS Vanguard had 130,000 shp oil-fired turbines engines, had a maximum speed of 30 kts, measured 814 ft x 108 ft x 30.9 ft and had a displacement of 44,500 tons. They were armed with 8x15” (5x2), 16x5.25” DP (Dual Purpose) (16x1) and 73x40mm Bofors AA (10x6, 1x2, 11x1) guns, a truly formidable armament.

HMS Vanguard acted as the Royal Yacht in 1947, then was used on special trials and eventually as a training ship. But with no real role for battleships any more, and very expensive in manpower and running costs, she was placed in the Reserve Fleet (as flagship) in 1956 until she was scrapped in 1960, the last – and best – British battleship.