HMS Stour

HMS Stour was a Laird-type River-class destroyer purchased by the Royal Navy under the 1908 – 1909 Naval Estimates in December 1909. Named after the River Stour in West Central England near the city of Birmingham, she was the first ship to carry this name in the Royal Navy.

Construction
Built on speculation, she was laid down on 5 December 1904 at the Cammell Laird shipyard at Birkenhead and launched on 3 June 1905. She was purchased and completed in December 1909.

Pre-War
Upon commissioning she was assigned to the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla of the 1st Fleet based at Harwich. She remained until displaced by a Basilisk-class destroyer by May 1912. She went into reserve assigned to the 5th Destroyer Flotilla of the 2nd Fleet with a nucleus crew.

On 30 August 1912 the Admiralty directed all destroyer classes were to be designated by alpha characters starting with the letter 'A'. The ships of the River class were assigned to the E class. After 30 September 1913, she was known as an E-class destroyer and had the letter ‘E’ painted on the hull below the bridge area and on either the fore or aft funnel.

World War I
In early 1914 when displaced by G-class destroyers she joined the 9th Destroyer Flotilla based at Chatham tendered to HMS St George (1892). The 9th Flotilla was a patrol flotilla tasked with anti-submarine and counter-mining patrols in the Firth of Forth area.

In August 1915 with the amalgamation of the 9th and 7th Flotillas she was deployed to the 7th Destroyer Flotilla based at the River Humber. She remained employed on the Humber Patrol participating in counter-mining operations and anti-submarine patrols for the remainder of the war.

Disposition
In 1919 Stour was paid off and laid up in reserve awaiting disposal. On 30 August 1919 she was sold to J. Smith for breaking.