HMS Partridge (1916)

HMS Partridge was a Royal Navy Admiralty M-class destroyer constructed and then operational in the First World War, later being sunk by enemy action in 1917. The destroyer was the sixth Royal Navy vessel to carry the name HMS Partridge.

Design and construction
The Admiralty M class were improved and faster versions of the preceding Laforey-class destroyer. They displaced 971 LT. The ships had an overall length of 273 ft, a beam of 26 ft and a draught of 9 ft. Partridge was powered by three Brown-Curtis direct-drive impulse steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, with geared cruising turbines, using steam provided by three Yarrow boilers. The turbines developed a total of 25000 shp and gave a maximum speed of 34 kn. The ships carried a maximum of 237 LT of fuel oil that gave them a range of 2100 nmi at 15 kn. The ships' complement was 76 officers and ratings.

The ships were armed with three single QF 4 in Mark IV guns and two QF 2-pounder (40 mm) "pom-pom" anti-aircraft guns. The ships were also fitted with two above water twin mounts for 21 in torpedoes.

The outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 resulted in the Admiralty placing a series of large orders for destroyers, to the design of the existing M-class to speed production. Partridge was one of 16 Admiralty M-class destroyers ordered as part of the Fourth War Construction Programme in February 1915. She was laid down at Swan Hunter's Wallsend shipyard in July 1915, launched on 4 March 1916 and completed in June that year.

Service
The vessel was assigned to the Fourteenth Destroyer Flotilla by July 1916. On 14 February 1917, Partridge, together with the destroyers HMS Plover (1916), HMS Portia (1916) and HMS Rob Roy (1916), was ordered to patrol between Peterhead and Aberdeen to counter the German submarine GS UC-44, which had been attacking trawlers. UC-44 completed her patrol unharmed.

On 11 December 1917 the destroyer left from Lerwick in the Shetland Islands, along with HMS Pellew (1916) and several armed trawlers to escort six merchant ships to Bergen, in Norway. The convoy was spotted by a flotilla of German destroyers and they unsuccessfully fought an engagement with the attacking destroyers, with Partridge being hit repeatedly by shells and torpedoes. The destroyer subsequently sank in the North Sea on 12 December 1917. Reports indicate that 97 of the crew were killed and only 24 were rescued. The wreck is believed to be off the Norwegian coast. One incident of reported heroism in the sinking, in which a Lieutenant Grey sacrificed a place in a life-raft for another officer resulted in the award of the Stanhope Gold Medal by the Royal Humane Society.