'Respectful farewell' to final Falklands warship

VETERANS and members of the public have turned out to give a “respectful farewell” to a former Royal Navy flagship that played a “vital role” in the Falklands conflict.

- BEN MITCHELL

HMS Bristol was towed out of Portsmouth Harbour on Wednesday, almost five years after it was decommissioned.

The warship, which was the last ship serving from the Falklands war, is being taken to a Turkish scrapyard.

The Type 82 destroyer was commissioned in March 1973 but having been designed to defend a class of aircraft carriers which was never built, it was the only warship of its class to enter service.

Bristol led a group of two destroyers, five frigates and an RFA supply ship providing reinforcements in the Falklands war and later joined the carrier battle task group as an air defence destroyer.