King's Own Royal Regiment Museum

Troopships and Royal Naval Ships

We don't give air travel a second thought these days, but up until the 1960s the main mode of transport for the British Army was the troopship.  Through the history of the regiment troopships have played their vital part in getting the regiment to where it needed to be!  This section of the photo gallery looks at some of the ships used by the regiment.

The meaning of "HMT" varies - it can mean His/Her Majesty's Troopship - as it did for the Crocodile, Malabar, Euphrates and Serapis.  It can also mean "Hired Merchant Transport" which is probably correct for the troop ships of the 1920s to 1950s.  It can also mean "His/Her Majesty's Trawler", but we don't think that applies to any of the ships in our collection!