Royal Navy service ,
Florida in 1938
Apollo served on the
North American and West Indies Station until 1938. On 15 November 1937, the ocean liner , which operated between
Liverpool and
Valparaíso,
Chile, via Bermuda, the West Indies and the
Panama Canal, stopped at Bermuda on its way to Chile with the body of former
Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald who had died aboard on 9 November. MacDonald's body was transferred to the Royal Navy at Bermuda for return to
Plymouth. All of the Bermuda-based cruisers of the
America and West Indies Station were away from Bermuda at that time except for
HMS Orion and HMS Apollo. As
Apollo was undergoing a refit at the dockyard, it would have fallen to
Orion to deliver MacDonald's body, but as she had been temporary flagship since had departed on 27 October for
Trinidad (due to civil unrest there) she could not leave the station and
Apollo was consequently hurried through her refit instead.
Orion was tasked with the memorial service for MacDonald, whose body was taken aboard the Royal Navy tug
Sandboy once the
Reina del Pacifico was in Bermudian waters and landed on Front Street in the
City of Hamilton along with the
Royal Naval Dockyard Chaplain, the Orion's Chaplain, an Honour Guard, sentries and coffin bearers. MacDonald's coffin was borne on a gun carriage to the
Church of England's
Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity, in a procession that included the ship's company of
Orion and a detachment of the
Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment), serving in the
Bermuda Garrison and based at
Prospect Camp Scotland. At the cathedral,
Arthur Browne, the
Bishop of Bermuda, conducted the memorial service, which was followed by a
lying in state. Thousands visited to pay their respects. MacDonald's body and his daughter departed Bermuda the following day aboard
Apollo, arriving at Plymouth on 25 November. His funeral was in
Westminster Abbey on 26 November, followed by a private cremation service at
Golders Green. After cremation, his ashes were taken to Lossiemouth, where a service commenced in his house,
"The Hillocks" followed by a procession to
Holy Trinity Church, Spynie where they were buried alongside his wife Margaret and their son David at in his native
Morayshire.
Australian acquisition The ship was purchased by the Australian Government in 1938, with the transfer of the seaplane tender to the Royal Navy as part of the payment. The cruiser was used as an escort in Australian waters until June 1941, when the ship's seaplane and catapult were removed, Crace transferred his flag back to
Canberra, and
Hobart was sent to the Mediterranean to relieve sister ship . From this point, the ship was almost constantly deployed on convoy escort duties There was only minor damage, but the fuelling operation could not be completed, and
Hobart was unable to join the Allied force that was defeated during the
Battle of the Java Sea two days later. At 07:00 on 7 May, Rear Admiral Crace, embarked aboard
Australia as commander of
Task Force 44, was ordered to take his ships (
Australia,
Hobart, US cruiser , and US destroyers , , and ) to the
Jomard Passage, and engage any Japanese ships found en route to Port Moresby, while several US carrier groups engaged a Japanese force headed for the Solomon Islands. The ships reached their patrol area around 14:00, fired on a group of eleven unidentified aircraft at maximum range with no damage dealt at 14:27, and were attacked themselves by twelve Japanese twin-engine torpedo bombers at 15:06; no ships were damaged for the loss of five aircraft. At 15:16, nineteen Japanese heavy bombers dropped their payload on the Allied ships; no ships were hit directly, the only casualties (aboard
Chicago) were from shrapnel. A few minutes later, the ships were attacked by another three heavy bombers, flying at a higher altitude to the first group; the bombing was much less accurate. The task force remained in their assigned area until 01:00 on 10 May, when Crace ordered them to withdraw south to
Cid Harbour on
Whitsunday Island; the lack of reports and intelligence concerning either the Americans or Japanese led him to conclude that both forces had withdrawn, and there was no immediate threat to Port Moresby. On 7 August,
Hobart supported the amphibious
landings at Guadalcanal and Tulagi. The torpedo struck the port quarter and caused serious damage. The cruiser arrived in Sydney on 26 August, and was docked at
Cockatoo Island Dockyard for repairs and refurbishment; the quantity of damage meant that she was out of service until 1945. Following her return,
Hobart was involved in the
landing at Tarakan on 25 April 1945, at Wewak on 11 May, at
Brunei in June, and at
Balikpapan in July. Following the war,
Hobart spent 1946 and 1947 in Japanese waters.
Hobart received eight
battle honours for her wartime service: "Mediterranean 1941", "Indian Ocean 1941", "Coral Sea 1942", "Savo Island 1942", "Guadalcanal 1942", "Pacific 1942–45", "East Indies 1940", and "Borneo 1945". in August 1945 ==Decommissioning and fate==