Homecoming tinged with sadness for Royal Navy

What a triumphant but bittersweet Christmas homecoming to Portsmouth for the crew of HMS Clyde. Some of the ship’s 40-strong crew have been away from home for up to nine months, though most have been on deployment for six months.

So imagine the excitement as families and loved ones gathered at the quayside yesterday to welcome home dads, mums, husbands, boyfriends, wives, girlfriends, brothers, sisters, aunties and uncles just in time for the festive season when families long to be together.

But the ship herself has been away from Portsmouth for a staggering 12 years at sea protecting the Falkland Islands, scene of one of the worst postwar conflicts involving Britain’s armed forces.

And no sooner was her crew safely ashore than HMS Clyde was decommissioned from the Royal Navy while HMS Forth takes up guard duties off the Falklands.

Commander Simon Pressdee, commanding officer of the Fishery Protection Squadron, said: ‘It has been a real privilege to welcome HMS Clyde home today after what has been the longest Royal Navy deployment in modern times, achieving over 12 years forward-deployed to the South Atlantic.

‘More than 800 members of the squadron have served in HMS Clyde, experiencing life in the southern oceans for over six months at a time, providing many of them with unique and special memories from an outstanding part of the planet.

For a ship with such an illustrious pedigree to return home and be decommissioned on the same day is doubly poignant.

It is a homecoming that those crewmen will never forget, and Clyde’s departure from the fleet will be a source of pride for all those who have served on her.

Farewell HMS Clyde, you have served Britain and the Royal Navy well.