HMS Tribune (1918)

Ordered on 7 April 1917, Tribune was laid down by J. Samuel White at East Cowes on the Isle of Wight with the yard number 1506 on 21 August, and launched on 28 March the following year.^[8] The ship was completed on 16 July.^[9] The vessel was the fifth to carry the name, which recalled the tribunes of ancient Rome.^[10] On commissioning, Tribune joined the Aegean Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet.^[11]

With the First World War closing, the destroyer saw no action before the Armistice, and remained in the Mediterranean Sea as part of the Sixth Destroyer Flotilla.^[12] 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 and manage the refugee crisis that arose from the conflict, including the evacuation of the Crimea. Tribune was sent to Karkinit Bay in the Crimea in January 1920.^[13] At the same time, the war between Greece and Turkey was escalating and the Turkish War of Independence had broken out.^[14] On 27 March, the destroyer accompanied the seaplane carrier Ark Royal and the battleship Royal Oak on a visit to Constantinople.^[15] The Allies had taken over the running of the city, and much of the force supporting the White Russians was now diverted to this new threat.^[16]

On 8 December 1921, Tribune was dispatched to Mykolaiv in one of the last naval operations in the Russian conflict.^[17] Although there is a lack of contemporary evidence for how Tribune was involved in the actual evacuation, the operation was considered a success by contemporaries.^[18] On 1 December the following year, the destroyer was again stationed in Constantinople.^[19] The recent Chanak Crisis had shaken the British ruling class and, along with the Carlton Club meeting, led to the fall of the government of David Lloyd George.^[14] The destroyer was sent to Chanak on 2 December, but saw no action and returned to Malta the following day.^[20]

January 1923 found Tribune still in the Mediterranean.^[21] Soon afterwards, the destroyer returned to the UK and was decommissioned. On 21 September, Tribune was recommissioned and subsequently joined the Seventh Destroyer Flotilla of the Atlantic Fleet.^[22] The ship then served for a further eight years based at Portsmouth. On 8 August 1929, Tribune took part in a war game around Telscombe, which involved simulated amphibious warfare, combining units from the Royal Navy and the London Regiment of the Territorial Army.^[23] On 26 June 1930, the destroyer transported attendees to the Imperial Press Conference to see a demonstration of naval power. The destroyer launched a torpedo at the target ship Ross and was attacked by the submarine L25. The torpedoes ran under their targets, leaving them unharmed but simulated hits.^[24] On 7 October, the ship carried some of the coffins of the victims of the R101 disaster back to Britain from France.^[25]

On 22 April 1930, the United Kingdom signed the London Naval Treaty, which limited the total destroyer tonnage that the navy could operate.^[26] The S class was deemed out of date and ripe to be replaced with more modern ships, including the C and D-class destroyers. In July 1931, Tribune was replaced as emergency destroyer at Portsmouth, with Tribune's crew transferring to sister ship Sabre.^[27] On 17 December, the destroyer was sold to Cashmore of Newport, Wales, and broken up.^[10]

• 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.
• Dittmar, F.J.; Colledge, J.J. (1972). British Warships 1914–1919. Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN 978-0-71100-380-4.
• 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.
• 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.
• Snook, David (1989). "British Naval Operations in the Black Sea 1918-1920: Part I". Warship International. 26 (1): 36–50.
• Williams, David L.; Sprake, Raymond F. (1993). White's of Cowes : "White's-built, well-built!". Peterborough: Silver Link. ISBN 978-1-85794-011-4.