HMCS Buxton

There has been only one vessel named Buxton in the Royal Canadian Navy.

HMCS Buxton (H96) / Town-class Destroyer

Commissioned as USS Edwards in 1919, she saw brief service with the USN in Europe before being placed in reserve at San Diego in 1922. Recommissioned in December 1939, she was given an overhaul, and from April to September 1940 was on Neutrality Patrol in the Gulf of Mexico and off the east coast of the US.

On 8 October she was commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Buxton at Halifax and assigned to local duties, since serious defects prevented her crossing the Atlantic. Following a major refit at Boston from July to September 1941 she made her first transatlantic crossing in October, only to undergo further repairs at Chatham, UK, which kept her idle from December 1941 to April 1942.

Returning to Canadian waters that August, she was assigned to Western Local Escort Force (WLEF). Her defects persisted and she was taken to Boston in December for further repairs. These repairs completed, she arrived at St. John’s on 30 March 1943 to rejoin WLEF, three months later becoming part of its newly formed EG W-1.

Her problems remained, however, and Buxton was offered to the RCN for training purposes. She arrived at Digby, NS, in December, having been commissioned at Halifax. She continued as a stationary training ship until paid off after VE-Day at Sydney, NS, and was broken up the same year at Boston, MA.

• Builder: Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp. Ltd., Squantum, Mass
• Date laid down: 20 April 1918
• Date launched: 10 October 1918
• Date commissioned in RCN: 4 November 1943
• Date paid off: 2 June 1945
• Displacement: 1 209.1 tonnes
• Dimensions: 95.8 m x 9.4 m x 2.8 m
• Speed: 28 knots
• Crew: 153
• Armament: four 4-inch, twelve 21-inch TT (4 x III)