Royal Navy minehunter HMS Grimsby is visiting her namesake town to exercise her Freedom of the Borough on Monday (16 September).
The ship’s company will parade through Grimsby and a service will be held in the town centre to mark the warship’s first visit to North East Lincolnshire since 2015.
The ceremonial guard is due to form-up from around 11.30am and the parade will step off into the Town Hall Square from 11.40am, with the public invited to come and show their support.
HMS Grimsby is home-ported at Her Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde and after a busy period on operations around the UK, is making her way to Humberside.
On Sunday, the ship will also be open to the public, giving locals a rare opportunity to learn about the minehunter and her capabilities.
From midday to 4pm, the ship will welcome visitors at the port on Cleethorpe Road. Click here for more details.
Associated British Ports regional director for the Humber, Simon Bird said: “We are extremely proud to be able to have this fantastic opportunity to welcome a Royal Navy vessel to the port of Grimsby as part of our ongoing partnership in support of the Armed Forces.”
“We have a fantastic history in this area of supporting our military family, past, present and future. I’m immensely proud to be part of re-affirming the Freedom of the Borough ceremony and hope that the public will come support this too.” said Armed Forces Champion for North East Lincolnshire, Alex Baxter.
The current crew have been on board since May and, by the end of September, the Sandown-class minehunter will have completed a second circumnavigation of the UK within a four-month period, having clocked several thousand miles in the process.
She recently made a visit to London and before that supported events in Vlissingen, in the Netherlands, to mark 75 years since the liberation of the country by UK and allied forces in World War Two.
This included providing a guard to open a new memorial and participating in a naval parade of 11 allied ships in the presence of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands.
After the visit to Grimsby the ship will return to Clyde for a programmed maintenance period and a change of crew before getting ready for a Nato deployment.
