Off the Beaten Track in Somerset: HMS Dulverton

Friday, 16 June 2023

HMS Dulverton

There have been two Royal Navy vessels named HMS Dulverton:

L3 was a Hunt-class destroyer launched in 1941. She took part in many World War II operations in the Mediterranean Sea including:

Escorting troop convoys on their way to the Suez Canal and Malta
Supporting the British Eighth Army in North Africa
The raid on Tobruk in Libya
Working with the RAF and other destroyers to blow up the German U-boat U559
The Dodecanese Campaign in October 1943 to try to recapture the Greek islands of Kos and Leros.

On 12th November HMS Dulverton returned to Leros, along with HMS Echo and HMS Belvoir, to support the garrison there, as the island had been invaded by the Germans. On 13th November, she was hit by a German glider bomb six miles off the coast of Kos. Her bows were blown off and she caught fire. 6 officers and 114 ratings were rescued but 3 officers (including the commanding officer Stuart Austen Buss) and 75 ratings were killed. After the rescue of the survivors was completed, HMS Dulverton was sunk by a torpedo fired from HMS Belvoir.

M35 was a Hunt-class mine countermeasures vessel launched in 1982. In 1997 she was converted into a patrol vessel. She was decommissioned in 2004. In 2008 she was sold to Lithuania and entered into service there in 2011 as the Kuršis.

Both vessels are commemorated in All Saints' Church in Dulverton. There is a model of HMS Dulverton (L3) in a glass case on display. This was made by Maurice Burgess and donated to the church by Lily and Maurice Burgess on 11th April 2010. The ship's bell and a carved wooden service board are located next to the model. M35's battle ensign, which she flew during the Gulf War January-March 1991 is folded up and displayed in a wall mounted case, next to an illustration of the ship's crest.

Those who lost their lives on HMS Dulverton in 1943 are commemorated on the town's war memorial in Kemps Way.