| Navy | The Royal Navy |
| Type | Destroyer |
| Class | Admiralty V & W |
| Pennant | D 54 |
| Built by | John Brown Shipbuilding & Engineering Company Ltd. (Clydebank, Scotland) |
| Ordered | |
| Laid down | 27 Sep 1916 |
| Launched | 28 Aug 1917 |
| Commissioned | 2 Oct 1917 |
| End service | |
| Loss position | |
| History | Reconstruction to Long Range Escort at Portsmouth Dockyard was finished in April 1943. Sold to be broken up for scrap on 4 March 1947. Commanding Officers: Lt.Cdr. Conrad Byron Alers-Hankey, RN Lt. Adrian Paul Northey, RN Cdr. Norman Vincent Dickinson, DSC, RN Lt.Cdr. Charles Leigh de Hauteville Bell, RD, RNR HMS Vanquisher was in Dockyard Control during conversion / refit Lt.Cdr. Gerald Anthony Gore Ormsby, RN A/Lt.Cdr. Frederick Meares Osborne, DSC, RANVR HMS Vanquisher is not listed in the July 1945 Navy list |
Commands listed for HMS Vanquisher (D 54)
Please note that we're still working on this section.
| Commander | From | To | ||
| 1 | Lt.Cdr. Kenneth Hillam Fraser, RN | 8 Aug 1938 | 11 Oct 1939 | |
| 2 | Lt.Cdr. Conrad Byron Alers-Hankey, RN | 11 Oct 1939 | 11 Aug 1940 | |
| 3 | Lt. Adrian Paul Northey, RN | 11 Aug 1940 | Feb 1941 | |
| 4 | Cdr. Norman Vincent Dickinson, DSC, RN | Feb 1941 | 7 Jun 1942 | |
| 5 | Cdr. Charles Leigh de Hauteville Bell, RD, RNR | 7 Jun 1942 | ??? | |
| 6 | Lt.Cdr. Gerald Anthony Gore Ormsby, RN | 15 Feb 1943 | 15 Nov 1943 | |
| 7 | A/Lt.Cdr. Frederick Meares Osborne, DSC, RANVR | 15 Nov 1943 | Apr 1945 ? | |
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Noteable events involving Vanquisher include:
11 Sep 1939
HMS Walker (Cdr. W.J.C. Robertson, RN) and HMS Vanquisher (Lt.Cdr. K.H. Fraser, RN) collide with each other about 200 nautical miles south-west of Cape Clear while escorting convoy OB 2. Both ships were heavily damaged. Vanquisher even had to be towed back to port. Vanquisher was under repair until early Janaury, Walker until mid-November.
8 Jul 1940
HMS Scimitar (Lt. R.D. Franks, OBE, RN) and HMS Vanquisher (Cdr. C.B. Alers-Hankey, RN) together pick up 43 survivors from the British merchant Humber Arm that was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-99 60 miles south of Fastnet in position 50º36'N, 09º24'W.
19 May 1941
HMS Vanquisher (Cdr. N.V. Dickinson, DSC, RN) picks up 2 survivors from the British merchant Empire Ridge that was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-96 90 nautical miles west of Bloody Foreland in position 55º08'N, 10º40'W.
10 Apr 1945
The German submarine U-878 was sunk in the Bay of Biscay west of St Nazaire, France in position 47º35'N, 10º33'W, by depth charges from the British destroyer HMS Vanquisher (A/Lt.Cdr. F.M. Osborne, DSC, RANVR) and the British corvette HMS Tintagel Castle (A/Lt.Cdr. R. Atkinson, DSC, RN). (see map)