Links With The Past: The HMS Leicester City
On 19 September, 1939, soon after the outbreak of war, the ship was taken over by the Admiralty and, in November, it was commissioned as a minesweeper in the 30th anti-submarine group.
Renamed ‘HMS Leicester City,’ It was part of the Royal Naval Patrol Service (RNPS) which was a rough and ready fighting fleet of hundreds of hastily-armed trawlers and drifters gathered together to guard Britain’s harbours and coastal convoys.
Following a suggestion published in the Leicester Mercury, the directors of Leicester City Football Club decided to officially adopt this converted minesweeper carrying the Club’s name. They then planned to send packages of useful items to the crew each month as part of the war effort.
A leading light in this initiative was Eirene Needham, who was married to Sidney Needham, one of the Club’s directors. With other ladies of the Croft Women’s Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS), Eirene knitted garments for Leicester City Football Club’s adopted sailors.
One of her handwritten inventory lists for one of the packages sent to the ship still exists in the Club’s archive collection.
The package, sent in October 1941, contained five parcels. These included such items as scarves, socks, mittens, sweaters, records for a gramophone, and a set of darts. It also contained a set of football kits. A photograph in the Club’s archives shows the crew wearing this kit.
Through Eirene, the Club kept in touch with the ship throughout the war. Her efforts were appreciated, as can be seen from this greeting card sent by the Ship’s Company to the Club for Christmas 1942 and the New Year of 1943.