ARL Collectables
EMPRESS OF FRANCE BADGE
Empress of France Badge, brass gilt and enamel in the shape of a ships wheel with flag, 25mm. dia., GVF.
The Empress of France was launched as DUCHESS OF BEDFORD on 24th January1928 at John Browns on the Clyde and her maiden voyage to Quebec on 1st June 1928. She had an exciting life, she hit an iceberg on 13 July 1933 off Newfoundland without sustaining damage, In June 1939 she rescued 12 French seamen from a barquentine that had sunk from hitting an iceberg off the Newfoundland coast.
When war broke out in 1939 she was taken over and converted to a troopship, again she was lucky, she was known as `the most bombed ship still afloat`. During her wartime service she carried 179,000servicemen and civilians all over the world. And covered over 400,000 miles.
She survived when a stick of bombs exploded around her when she was anchored in the Mersey during the May Blitz in 1941
In Singapore in January 1942 she escaped as the Japs were inside the streets of the City with 850 women and children, She was damaged but made it to Java to land the passengers and escaped more serious damage from another air attack.
In August 1942 she sank a German U-Boat with her thirty year old six inch gun in the North Atlantic and was reported to have damaged another. Several awards were given for this action.
She was at the invasion of North Africa, Anzio and Salerno,She was the Headquarters ship at Salerno and survived heavy bombing and credited with shooting down a torpedo bomber.
She was presented with a plaque by the Russian Navy for repatriating thousands of Russian prisoners in Odessa in 1945
In 1947 she was returned to her owners and sent to John Browns Yard to be given a refit and to rejoin the Duchess of Richmond which became the Empress of Canada on the Liverpool Quebec service. She was renamed Empress of India, but at that time India got its independence and so she was renamed again and called EMPRESS OF FRANCE. On 1st September 1948.
She did well to last 32 years of service until she was sent to the scrap yard in Newport South Wales after she returned from her last trip to Montreal on 7th December 1960.
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