HMS_Eaglet_(shore_establishment)
HMS Eaglet (shore establishment)
Royal Naval Reserve unit in Liverpool, England
HMS Eaglet is a Royal Navy Reserve unit based in Liverpool. She is the main occupant of the Royal Navy Regional Headquarters in Liverpool, Merseyside. The base (often also colloquially referred to as HMS Eaglet) is also the home to a number of units, including:Royal Marines Reserve Merseyside, Naval Regional Command Northern England, Liverpool URNU, HMS Biter, HMS Charger, Sea Cadet Corps, and the Liverpool Royal Navy and Royal Marines Careers Office.
The unit is one of the oldest continuously operating commissioned commands in the Royal Navy.
She was initially commissioned in 1904 as HMS Eagle taking her name from HMS Eagle, the warship allocated by the RN to serve as a dockside training centre for the Mersey Division of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). The unit operated as HMS Eagle up until WW2 when the name HMS Eagle was taken back for use for an active service warship. At this time she was allocated the name HMS Eaglet, retaining this name to date. Eaglet’s officers and ratings saw extensive combat in the Royal Naval Division during the First World War, serving on every major campaign including the Ill-fated Gallipoli campaign of 1916.
Subsequently, the Ship’s Company saw deployments during WW2 and every other major conflict to date.
Eaglet herself was also used as a Naval signals training centre during World War 2. The original training ship was decommissioned and sunk in the 1920s, with the unit moving to a waterfront shore facility. In 1997 she moved to her current location on Sefton Street, Liverpool.