04 March 1929 the order to built the ship was signed. Built as a destroyer by the yard of John Brown in Clydebank for the Royal navy.
11 October 1929 keel laid down.
26 Sept. 1930 launched under the name HMS BEAGLE. (H30)
Displacement 1.330 ton standard, maximum 1.747 ton, dim. 323 x 32.3 x 10.3ft., lengthy between pp. 312ft., draught 8.6ft.
Steamturbines with a total output of 34.000 shp., speed during trials 35 knots, service speed 31½ knots.
Armament; 4 – 4.7 inch, 2 – 2pdrs. pom-pom, 2 – 4 21 inch torpedo tubes.
09 April 1931 delivered to the Royal Navy and commissioned 15 May 1931.
Contract building prize £214.000.
Crew 138.
After she was commissioned joined the 4th Destroyer Flotilla in the Mediterranean.
On the request of the High Commissioner of Palestine dispatched to Jaffa to aid the civil power during communal unrest, before she headed home, arrived Devonport on 27 August 1936.
16 January 1937 sailed out from Devonport after a refit, joined again the 4th Destroyer Flotilla now part of the Home Fleet of the Royal Navy.
Again a refit at Devonport from 04 April until 17 Sept. 1938. After the refit as escort destroyer to the aircraft carrier HMS FURIOUS. Again in dockyard hands from 24 Nov 1938 till 03 Jan. 1939 then used as a plane-guard for the training carrier HMS ARGUS the next four months.
Again under repair at Devonport from 12 April till 03 May 1939, after she got minor damage after a collision with HMS BASILISK.
Again plane-guard ship with the FURIOUS at Rosyth. Then again docked at Devonport before joining the 19th Destroyer Flotilla at Dover during Sept. 1939. Used for routine duties until April 1940.
Then used for convoy duties to the Orkneys and Narvik between April and June 1940. She ferried troops from St Nazaire on 16 June to waiting large troopships in the River Loire estuary anchorage, and then used in the evacuation of 600 British nationals from Bordeaux to Plymouth on 18 June.
23 June she was the last vessels which left Bordeaux for the UK. At Bordeaux she had acted as liaison with the French Government which had transferred to that city, she arrived at Plymouth on 25 June.
03 July 1940 received orders to join the 1st Destroyer Flotilla at Dover and was used for patrols in that area.
19 June after an attack by a JU 87 German planes she got damage on her gyrocompass and boiler room, which needed repair at Devonport until 16 August.
After the repair was completed she retained at Devonport and joined the 22nd Destroyer Flotilla, used for patrols in the English Channel.
14 October joined the Home Fleet and 4 days later escorted the carrier ARGUS who brought naval aircraft to Iceland. Then she escorted a West Africa convoy.
February 1941 transferred to the Western Approaches Command as part of the 4th Escort Group, used to escort vessels between the Clyde and Iceland.
24 October 1941 during bad weather she suffered a broken foremast and damage on deck, the damage was repaired at Greenock, and the same time she was fitted out with radar.
December 1941 again she suffered heavy weather damage and had to go to the Tyne for repair.
She was then converted in a short-range escort with an early Hedgehog installation and torpedo tubes who could fire a 1-ton depth charge.
Then used as a convoy escort vessel in the convoys PQ14 to Murmansk, North Russia, and the return convoy QP11. On 01 May 1942 together with the BULLDOG, AMAZON and BEVERLEY she beat of five separate attacks of three large German destroyers. The BEAGLE suffered minor splinter damage.
Between May and Oct. 1942 she escorted troop convoys from the Clyde to south of Iceland in the Greenock Escort Force.
Between October and November joined Force H for escort duties in Operation Torch.
Again then used for escort for convoys to and from north Russia.
After a refit and improved insulation to make her more useful for Arctic convoy duty, instead of used in Arctic waters she was send to the tropic waters of Freetown, where she was used as a local escort until her return to the Home Fleet in November 1943.
Joined the 5th Escort Group and made five roundtrips to North Russia as a convoy escort between Nov 1943 and May 1944.
From 01 April 1944 used in Operation Neptune (D-Day landings in Normandy) She left the Solent anchorage the 5th at 14.00 with assault convoy J8, and arrived June beach the 6th.
She destroyed two JU88 when attacked on 22/23 June
The 26th she opened fire on an E-boat 0051. 26th she towed the corvette HMS PINK, who was badly damaged by a U-boat attack to the Solent were she arrived 27th.
Repair at Sheerness from 19 July till September 1944.
Joined the 8th Escort Group for a few weeks before she was re-allocated to the Plymouth Command for escort duties in the Western English Channel.
From 12 April till 1 May 1945 she operated with the Biscay Blockade and attended with HMS BULLDOG the surrender of the German garrison in the Channel Island on 09 May 1945.
24 May reclassed to Category C Reserve.
22 December 1945 decision was made for scrapping, and on 15 January 1946 she was handed over to BISCO at Rosyth.
Scrapped by the Metal Industries shipbreaking yard.
Jersey 1995 23p sg702, scott 712
Source: B.E.F. Ships before, at and after Dunkirk by John de S. Winser. The D-Day Ships by John de S. Winser. Amazon to Ivanhoe by John English.