HMS Despatch (D30)

HMS Despatch was a Danae-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was launched from the yards of Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company on 24 September 1919 and commissioned on 2 June 1922.

Despatch had a relatively quiet wartime career, compared to her sisters. She was operating in the South Atlantic for the early part of the war, where she captured the German merchant Düsseldorf and intercepted the German merchant Troja. However the crew of the Troja scuttled her before she could be captured. She was in the Mediterranean, escorting convoys in late 1940, and became involved in Operation White and the Battle of Cape Spartivento. Despatch was reduced to the reserve in January 1945, and sold on 5 April 1946 for scrapping. She arrived at the yards of Arnott Young, of Troon, Scotland on 5 May 1946 to be broken up.