Dates: 1893 - 1920
HMS Dryad was a stone frigate (shore establishment). It was the home of the Royal Navy’s Maritime Warfare School
Originally the establishment was based in Portsmouth Dockyard. The establishment took its name from the ship used as its tender, the fourth HMS Dryad. During World War II it was moved to Southwick House near Portsmouth, where it remained until 2004. The establishment ceased to exist after the Maritime Warfare School was moved to HMS Collingwood. The Southwick location is now used for as the Defence Police College. Southwick Hall remains the Officer’s Mess at MOD Dryad. Other units now based there include the Service Police Crime Bureau.
The fourth HMS Dryad was a two-gun twin-screw Torpedo gunboat, launched at Chatham Dockyard on 22 November 1893.
She was of 1,670 tons displacement and her engines generated 3,500 horsepower, giving a top speed of 18.5 knots. Her length, beam, and draught were 250 feet (76 m), 30 feet (9 m), and 10 feet (3 m). She was armed with torpedoes and two 4.7-inch (12 cm) guns
On 14 January 1900 Dryad left Chatham for the Mediterranean in order to relieve HMS Hussar, which returned to Devonport to pay off.
In 1906 she was chosen as the tender to the Navigation School, conducting navigation training of officers at sea. In due course her name came to be used for the Navigation School itself, and then for HMS Dryad, the shore establishment at Southwick House in Hampshire.
By 1914 Dryad had been converted to a minesweeper and was operating in the North Sea from the port of Lowestoft.
She was renamed HMS Hamadryad in 1918 and was broken up in 1920.
Forces Reunited Forum Posts involving HMS Dryad
"Anybody know the whereabouts of Fred please let me know.I served with him on HMS Hermione 1977 -1979;He was my son Christophers godfather.He spent many years at HMS Dryad.He was a Bosun PR SD officer.Would appreciate any info."
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"HMS Wakeful. Hms Galatea. HMS Tenby. HMS Fife. HMS Vernon. HMS Charybdis.HMS Dryad. FOF1 Staff. HMS Rooke."
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"looking 4 martin phillip edwards who served at hms dryad and hms blake with me between 1976 and 1979"
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"added HMS Carysfort on behalf of my husband David Highstead. I met him at HMS DRYAD and remember many of his friends who were a law onto themselves when joining Dryad from HMS CARYSFORT."
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