Displacement: 10,700 tons. Speed: 22.25 knots. Complement: 655. Length: 450 ft. Beam: 68.5 ft. Draught: 25.5 ft. Armament: four 7.5 in guns, six 6 in guns, two 2 pounder guns, twenty-two 3 pounder guns and two maxims plus two 18-inch submerged torpedo tubes. Coal bunkers 800 tons normal, 1,750 tons maximum. Two screws.

The HMS Roxburgh, was a Devonshire Class cruiser of the Royal Navy. The Devonshire class was an attempt at an improvement over the Monmouth class with only a modest increase in size, with a heavier main armament and thicker but narrower belt armor. Her other sister ships in the class were:

HMS Hampshire commissioned 4th September 1903 and built at Elswick. She was mined and sunk off the Orkneys 5th June 1916 with the loss of 650 of her crew including Lord Kitchener.

HMS Argyll commissioned 3rd April 1904 and built at Greenock. She wrecked on 28th October 1915 off the Coast of Scotland where she ran aground on Bell Rock.

HMS Carnarvon commissioned 7th October 1903 and built at Beardsmore. She was used as a sea-going training ship for cadets and then sold and broken up 8th November 1921.

HMS Antrim commissioned in 8th October 1903 and built at Clydebank. After WWI she was used for Signal and wireless transmitter experiments. Her fate ended when she was sold and broken up 19th December 1922.

HMS Devonshire commissioned 30th April 1904 and built at Chatham. She was sold and broken up 9th May 1921

HMS Roxburgh was built by London & Glasgow Engine & Iron Shipbuilding Company at Yard No 316. She was laid down June 1902 and launched on 19 January 1904 at an average cost of £850,000 (1901 British Pounds). Until the end of 1908, HMS Roxburgh served with the 1st Cruiser Squadron in the Channel Fleet. After a refit at Devonport she joined the 3rd Division of the Home Fleet in August 1909. She was then moved to the 5th Cruiser Squadron in June 1912. In December 1912 she was ordered to protect the stranded SS Ludgate off Morocco. HMS Roxburgh then joined the 3rd Cruiser Squadron in February 1913 before joining the Grand Fleet in August the next year. On 6th August that year she captured a German merchant ship along with HMS Argyll. After a refit in January 1915, she was hit by torpedoes from German u-boat U39 and sustained damage to her bow on 20th June 1915. Repaired in April 1916 she was sent to Norwegian waters and later on in September of that year she served on the North America and West Indies Station until the Armistice. On 24 May 1917 she escorted her first American convoy from Hampton Roads, Virginia. Painted in dazzle camouflage she rammed and sank German u-boat U89 while escorting a convoy off the coast of Northern Ireland on 12th February 1918. For this achievement she wore a merit mark in the form of a star painted on her fore-funnel.

On July 30, 1918 in a pouring rain, the US 71st Artillery Regiment, together with its complete equipment, was loaded on two British ships, the HMS Margha and the HMS Anselm at Pier 3, East Boston, Mass., Colonel Long with nine-hundred and ninety-two troops on the Margha and Major R. C. Harrison with ten hundred and fourteen troops on the Anselm. HMS Anselm and the HMS Margha, formed part of a small convoy, which sailed from Boston Harbor out past Fort Strong on the morning of July 31, 1918. The convoy was just off Halifax Harbor and Friday morning early passed in by the forts and the town and anchored in the inner harbor. Here they lay until Sunday August 4, when they sailed as part of a field of seventeen transports, at 11:30 am under convoy of HMS Roxburgh. As the convoy made its journey across the Atlantic they had an exceedingly pleasant trip, with but few noteworthy incidents. Early in the morning of August 13 the convoy picked up its destroyer escort consisting of the USS Terry DD-25 and the USS Jenkins DD-42. The men greeted the American ships flying the American flag and manned by US bluejackets with prolonged cheers. On Thursday August 15, the convoy sailed into Liverpool, with flags flying and the band playing on the deck for the first time since leaving Halifax.

In 1919 she went into reserve but then became a wireless trials ship before being sold in 1921 and finally being scrapped in Germany in 1922.

Brian Tricker from Ontario, Canada shared this photo of 3 of the Roxburgh's Marines and one Sailor with his arm in a sling. Brian goes on to say, "Here is a photo of some personnel that apparently were serving on HMS Roxburgh, according to the cap identification on the wounded sailor. I have no idea who they are. They were in a family album of my father's with no notation as to identification. I am presuming that one of them may be a relative but I have no way of determining who it might be."

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Frederic Welsby AB, British Royal Navy

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"Jack" Knowles

Kevin John Hunkin, contacted me about his grandfather being in the photo from Frederic Welsby’s Port Gun Crew above. His Grandfather is in the back row far right side leaning on the gun. I asked Kevin if he could share a story of his grandfather and this is what Kevin told of him.

“My grandfather was born in St. Austell, Cornwall, England as Thomas John Knowles (but was always Known as 'Jack Knowles') in 1898. He apprenticed at 14 as a cooper, but lied to join the navy at the age of 15 on the 28th February 1916. Doing his basic training at HMS Vivid (now HMS Drake at Plymouth) and then onto Submarine school at HMS Defiance at Plymouth, England. But he was found to be claustrophobic and was transferred on 19th august 1916 to HMS Roxburgh; during this time he visited New York and Jamaica. In Jamaica he was hospitalized due to Illness for a long time, not likening his medicine he poured it out the window (the doctors were puzzled why he wasn't responding to treatment) but one day he didn't look and poured it over a doctor! He was supervised after that. During this time in hospital a clerical error sent a telegram to his parents to state that he had died. When he was better he came home on leave, his mother saw him walking down the road and rushed indoors and said 'my Jacks walking down the road.’ Every body thought it was the ranting of a grieving mother but she persuaded them to go out side to the shock of their lives. He was demobilized from the Navy on the 20th February 1919. During the Second World War he was in the 'Home Guard.’ We have photos of him meeting General Montgomery. After that he became a coal merchant and died in 1971 when I was 6.”

A Tiger Shark caught by one of the Roxburgh's crew. Written on the back is "winner of the fishing competition." The officer dressed in whites on the left side has a pistol in his right hand, no doubt to make sure the shark is really dead.

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Michael Armstrong Linda Friel shared this photo of her grandmothers younger brother. His name is Michael Armstrong and he would have been born about 1901 in Dublin, Ireland give or take a year. He would have served on the HMS Roxburgh about 1917-1919 during WWI. Linda's grandmother only received a few letters from him then they stopped coming. Linda relates; "She tried for many years to trace him but could not . We dont really know what happened to him." On Michael's hat band it says "HMS Roxburgh"

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Alexander Burnett

Alexander Burnett was born in Scotland, and was in the British Royal Navy, serving on the HMS Roxburgh, which, is known from the pictures he sent to his son and wife in 1907 and 1910 from the Roxburgh. Tamara Armitage is the great-granddaughter of Alexander Burnett and has a postcard (shown on the right) of the Roxburgh with his writing on the back, sent to her grandfather and great-grandmother in Peterhead, Scotland. When the family immigrated to Canada from Scotland, Alexander and his son (Tamara's grandfather) both enlisted in the Canadian Infantry out of Winnipeg, Canada. Alexander indicated on his registration papers, in 1916 that he had 10-years in the British Naval Reserve, and he was currently with the Cameron Highlanders of Canada. Alexander was killed in Tilloy, France on October 1, 1918. Tamara's grandfather, James Burnett, was with him, but was not injured.

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William "Bill" Wilson

William “Bill” Wilson was born in Burnley, England in 1891, and lived almost his entire live at 5 Hyde Street in Burnley. Wilson joined the British Royal Navy and served on the British Cruiser HMS Roxburgh during WWI. Wilson’s niece, Sheila (Wilson) Whiteley, shared this about her uncle, “He told me he used to help load the guns but like many of his generation he spoke very little about his war efforts. Two of his younger brothers served in the army and both died shortly after the war of poisoning so I suppose looking back on the war made him very sad.”

After the war and Bill Wilson left the Royal Navy he returned to his home in Burnley where he took a job working as a bus conductor. His niece recalls that this was “...a job more suited I think to his kind and cheerful nature.” Wilson met and married a woman named Cilla who was his sweetheart and they never had children of their own but seemed to be friends with every child in the neighborhood.

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