HMS Sparrowhawk (1918)

Laid down on September 1917 during the First World War by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson at their dockyard in Wallsend on the River Tyne with the yard number 1083, Sparrowhawk was launched on 14 May 1918 and completed on 4 September shortly before the Armistice that ended the war.^[5][10][11] The ship was the sixth of the name to enter service with the Royal Navy.^[12] Sparrowhawk was commissioned into the Grand Fleet, joining the Fourteenth Destroyer Flotilla.^[13] However, with the end of the war, the Royal Navy returned to a peacetime level of strength and both the number of ships and personnel needed to be reduced to save money.^[14] On 27 April 1920, the ship was recommissioned at Plymouth.^[15] The vessel was transferred to the Sixth Destroyer Flotilla to serve with the Mediterranean Fleet.^[16] On 26 May, the vessel sailed from Gibraltar to Malta.^[17]

By this time, the increasingly belligerent Russian Civil War led the Royal Navy to send ships into the Black Sea to support the White Russian forces.^[18] On 8 June, Sparrowhawk sailed for Smyrna.^[19] At the same time, the war between Greece and Turkey was escalating and the Turkish War of Independence had broken out.^[20] This conflict increasingly became the focus for the Mediterranean Fleet.^[21] After the dissolution of the General Assembly of the Ottoman Empire, the British sent additional warships to support the Occupation of Istanbul. The High Commissioner, John de Robeck, advocated an attack on the remainingOttoman Navy but instead a number of ships sailed in support of negotiations between the Turkish National Movement and the allied powers.^[22] On 29 July, Sparrowhawk sailed for the city.^[23] The fleet remained there as a demonstration of force.^[24] On 8 February 1923, the destroyer arrived back in Smyrna.^[25]

On 1 April 1926, the vessel replaced Serene as emergency destroyer at HMNB Devonport.^[26] On 22 April 1930, the London Naval Treaty was signed, which limited total destroyer tonnage that the Royal Navy could operate. As the force was looking to introduce more modern destroyers, some of the older vessels needed to be retired.^[27] On 28 August, the destroyer was put up for sale.^[28] The ship was retired and, on 5 February 1931, the sold to be broken up by Ward in Grays.^[12]

• Bush, Steve; Warlow, Ben (2021). Pendant Numbers of the Royal Navy: A Complete History of the Allocation of Pendant Numbers to Royal Navy Warships & Auxiliaries. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-526793-78-2.
• Clapson, Mark (2009). The Routledge Companion to Britain in the Twentieth Century. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-41527-535-4.
• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006). Ships of the Royal Navy: a complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th century to the present. London: Chatham. ISBN 978-1-85367-566-9.
• Friedman, Norman (2009). British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the First World War. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-049-9.
• Halpern, Paul (2019). The Mediterranean Fleet, 1919-1929. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-91142-387-4.
• March, Edgar J. (1966). British Destroyers: A History of Development, 1892–1953. London: Seeley Service. OCLC 164893555.
• Moretz, Joseph (2002). The Royal Navy and the Capital Ship in the Interwar Period. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-71465-196-5.
• Parkes, Oscar; Prendergast, Maurice (1969). Jane's Fighting Ships 1919. Newton Abbott: David & Charles. OCLC 907574860.
• Preston, Antony (1985). "Great Britain and Empire Forces". In Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 1–104. ISBN 978-0-85177-245-5.