HMS Riviera

HMS Riviera was built as a fast Cross-Channel steamer for the South East and Chatham Railway Co. The ship was requisitioned by the Admiralty on 11 August 1914 and converted by Chatham Dockyard to operate four seaplanes.

Based at Harwich along with HMS Engadine and Empress, aircraft from all three ships took part in the Cuxhaven Raid on hangars housing Zeppelin airships on Christmas Day 1914. A notable member of her crew was Robert Erskine Childers whose knowledge of the east German coast was considered very important in the raid. HMS Riviera later saw service in the Dover Patrol, prior to moving to the Mediterranean in June 1918.

In 1919 the ship returned to civilian use under her original name of RTMS Lairds Isle. She once again entered military service on 28 August 1939 as HMS Laird's Isle, an Armed Boarding Vessel and carried landing craft and tanks on D-Day.

She returned to civil use again in 1946.