HMS Eaglet (shore establishment)

HMS Eaglet is a Royal Navy Reserve unit based in Liverpool. She is the main occupant of the Royal Navy Regional Headquarters in Liverpool, Merseyside. The base (often also colloquially referred to as HMS Eaglet) is also the home to a number of units, including:Royal Marines Reserve Merseyside, Naval Regional Command Northern England, Liverpool URNU, HMS Biter (P270), HMS Charger (P292), Sea Cadet Corps, and the Liverpool Royal Navy and Royal Marines Careers Office.

The unit is one of the oldest continuously operating commissioned commands in the Royal Navy.

She was initially commissioned in 1904 as HMS Eagle taking her name from HMS Eagle, the warship allocated by the RN to serve as a dockside training centre for the Mersey Division of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). The unit operated as HMS Eagle up until WW2 when the name HMS Eagle was taken back for use for an active service warship. At this time she was allocated the name HMS Eaglet, retaining this name to date. Eaglet’s officers and ratings saw extensive combat in the Royal Naval Division during the First World War, serving on every major campaign including the Ill-fated Gallipoli campaign of 1916.

Subsequently, the Ship’s Company saw deployments during WW2 and every other major conflict to date.

Eaglet herself was also used as a Naval signals training centre during World War 2. The original training ship was decommissioned and sunk in the 1920s, with the unit moving to a waterfront shore facility. In 1997 she moved to her current location on Sefton Street, Liverpool.

Current
The current stone frigate is based on Brunswick Dock in Liverpool, opened in 1998 by the Duke of Edinburgh. As outlined above it is also home to several other functions and units in addition to the reservists of HMS Eaglet.

History
This history of the Royal Navy, training and reserves in Merseyside is a long one. There has been a reserves training unit commissioned in Liverpool since 1904, then Mersey Division RNVR. Much of the unit's history has been afloat, with various ships taking up the mantle of HMS Eagle and later Eaglet to engage with the maritime element of training as well as drawing recruitment to itself and sub-units (now defunct) to engage with the region. In 2018 HMS Eaglet celebrated her centenary.

The Mersey Division of the RNVR was established in Customs House, Liverpool in 1904, before moving to HMS Eagle (1804), a 50-gun frigate at Brunswick Dock, in 1911. Mersey Division was mobilised in 1914 to form part of the Royal Naval Division, serving at Gallipoli, the battles of Battle of Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele and Cambrai.

To avoid confusion with a newer HMS Eagle (1918), the frigate was renamed HMS Eaglet in 1918. The ship was destroyed in a fire in 1926, and replaced by the First World War 24-class sloop sloop HMS Sir Bevis (1918), which was renamed Eaglet. The new Eaglet was berthed at Salthouse Dock. During the Second World War, Eaglet became the flagship of Commander-in-Chief Western Approaches. In 1971, the sloop was scrapped and HMS Eaglet moved ashore to a new HQ at Prince's Dock. In 1993, Eaglet received the freedom of the city of Liverpool.

Current units
The following are based at the location:


 * Headquarters, Naval Regional Command Northern England
 * Naval Regional Commander, Northern England and Isle of Man
 * Headquarters, Royal Marine Reserve Merseyside
 * Liverpool University Royal Naval Unit
 * Archer-class patrol vessels:
 * HMS Biter (P270) – serving Manchester and Salford University Royal Naval Unit
 * HMS Charger (P292) – serving Liverpool University Royal Naval Unit

Famous attendees

 * Ian Edward Fraser, VC RNR