HMS Forfar (F30)

HMS Forfar was formerly the liner SS Montrose, requisitioned as an Armed Merchant Cruiser in 1939 and sunk in 1940.

She was built by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co Ltd in Glasgow, being launched in 1920 as passenger ship Montrose(II) of Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd. In 1939 she was requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted to an armed merchant cruiser and renamed HMS Forfar.

On 2 December 1940 Forfar, on the Northern Patrol, was torpedoed and sunk by U-99 under the command of Otto Kretschmer. Forfar was en route to join convoy OB 251 and was about 500 miles west of Ireland. 36 officers, including her Captain Norman Arthur Cyril Hardy, and 136 men lost their lives. The survivors were rescued by the Canadian destroyer HMCS St. Laurent, the British destroyer HMS Viscount and the British cargo steamer Dursley.