25 December 2020

A Royal visit to Upnor

The below image appeared in 'The Sphere' on 28th July 1956 and shows leading boy Barrie Dimmock (pictured right), from Buckinghamshire, receiving an award from Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands during a visit he made to naval training vessel Arethusa in Lower Upnor.


Cadet Dimmock was presented with the Rob Roy Cup and also received a number of other prizes.

Prince Bernhard toured the Arethusa, addressed the ship’s company and awarded numerous prizes to the assembled cadets. He also inspected a guard of honour and the ship’s band.

Arethusa was built in 1911 (in Hamburg, Germany), and was originally called Peking. She was purchased by Shaftesbury Homes in 1932, re-named Arethusa, and moved to Upnor in July 1933, where she became a training school and children’s home. In 1974, as Peking, she was sold to the South Street Seaport Museum in New York City where she remained until 2016 - when the ship was moved back to Germany. Peking is now undergoing a £23 million restoration and is set to become the flagship of a new maritime museum in Hamburg.