HMS Sir Thomas Picton (1915)

Sir Thomas Picton c. 1916
History
United Kingdom
Name	Sir Thomas Picton
Namesake	Sir Thomas Picton
Builder	Harland and Wolff, Belfast
Yard number	481
Laid down	16 January 1915
Launched	30 September 1915
Completed	4 November 1915
Decommissioned	1921
Fate	Scrapped, 1921
General characteristics
Class and type	Lord Clive-class monitor
Displacement	6,150 tons
Length	335 ft (102.1 m)
Beam	87 ft (26.5 m)
Draught	9.7 ft (3.0 m)
Propulsion	2 shafts, reciprocating steam engines, 2 boilers, 2,310 hp
Speed	6.5 knots (12.0 km/h; 7.5 mph)
Complement	187
Armament	2 × BL 12 in (305 mm) guns 2 × 3 in (76 mm) guns

HMS Sir Thomas Picton was a First World War Royal Navy Lord Clive-class monitor. Sir Thomas Picton was the only Royal Navy ship ever named for Sir Thomas Picton, a British general of the Peninsula War who was killed at the Battle of Waterloo. The ship's original 12" main battery was stripped from the obsolete Majestic-class battleship HMS Mars.

The Lord Clive-class monitors were originally built in 1915 to engage German shore artillery in occupied Belgium during the First World War. Sir Thomas Picton, however was differently employed, being dispatched to the Eastern Mediterranean upon completion for service with the fleet there alongside her sister Earl of Peterborough. Early in 1916 she shelled Turkish positions at the Dardanelles and during the remainder of the war was active against Turkish units in Egypt, Palestine and Turkey itself.

Following the armistice in November 1918, Sir Thomas Picton and her sisters were put into reserve pending scrapping, as the reason for their existence ended with the liberation of Central Power-held coastlines. In 1921 Sir Thomas Picton was scrapped along with all her sisters.

References[]

• Buxton, Ian (2008) [1978]. Big Gun Monitors. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84415-719-8.
• Colledge, J. J.; Wardlow, Ben & Bush, Steve (2020). Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present (5th ed.). Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5267-9327-0.
• Dittmar, F. J.; Colledge, J. J. (1972). British Warships 1914–1919. London, UK: Ian Allan. ISBN 978-0-7110-0380-4.
• Preston, Antony (1985). "Great Britain and Empire Forces". In Gray, Randal (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. pp. 1–104. ISBN 0-85177-245-5.