HMS Chelmer Plaque

As you can read from the photograph, this plaque was presented to HMS Chelmer to her adoption by the inhabitants of Witham, Silver End, Rivenhall, Hatfield Peverel, Terling, Faulkbourne and White Notley during Warship Week in March 1942.

Warship Week was a National Savings campaign that took place during the Second World War, the aim being that communities would raise funds to pay for repairs to a ship that they would then 'adopt', along with their crew. Larger towns and cities were set larger targets and would adopt larger ships, whereas smaller towns and communities would have a lower target and adopt the smaller ships.

HMS Chelmer (K221) was a River Class Frigate, built in 1942 and launched on 27th March 1943. HMS Chelmer performed convoy defence exercises in the North Atlantic during World War II, and was one of 151 frigates launched over a 3 year period to be used as anti-submarine convoy escorts and named after rivers in the UK. She was scrapped in 1957.