HMS King Alfred

One ship and two shore establishments of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS King Alfred, after Alfred the Great:

Ships

Shore establishments

HMS King Alfred (shore establishment 1994)

HMS King Alfred is a Royal Naval Reserve unit located on Whale Island, Portsmouth, within HMS Excellent in the vicinity of HMNB Portsmouth. The unit has a complement of over 200 reservists and provides training facilities to other Naval Reserve units.

HMS King Alfred opened on 1 April 1994 and was commissioned on 8 June that year, replacing the recently closed units at HMS Sussex and HMS Wessex. The unit is affiliated with Southampton University Royal Naval Unit and Bearwood College Combined Cadet Force and provides local representation at events including the Ship Festival, in Chichester; and the Remembrance Sunday services in Portsmouth and Hove. Members of the unit are also honorary freedom holders of the City of Portsmouth.Penny Mordaunt, the local MP and Minister of State for the Armed Forces is a sub-lieutenant in the RNR based at the site.

Notes

References

HMS King Alfred (shore establishment 1939)

The second Royal Navy "ship" to be called HMS King Alfred was the shore establishment sited at Hove in Sussex. In 1939 on the outbreak of the Second World War, the Navy was searching for a site for a training depot for officers of the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). The Sussex Division of the RNVR was based in Hove and its motor launch, ML 1649, was called HMS King Alfred and near to the divisional base was a new leisure centre that was just finishing construction. The Admiralty immediately requisitioned the leisure centre and on 11 September 1939 commissioned it as HMS King Alfred under the command of Captain John Pelly.

The first trainees arrived the same day and by May 1940 1,700 men had passed through the base. Most of these were members of the pre-war Royal Navy Volunteer (Supplementary) Reserve (RNV(S)R) (The RNV(S)R had been formed in 1936 for gentlemen who are interested in yachting or similar pursuits and aged between 18 and 39).

Alfred the Great

Alfred the Great (849 – 26 October 899) (Old English: Ælfrēd, Ælfrǣd, "elf counsel" or "wise elf") was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.

Alfred successfully defended his kingdom against the Viking attempt at conquest, and by the time of his death had become the dominant ruler in England. He is one of only two English monarchs to be given the epithet "the Great", the other being the Scandinavian Cnut the Great. He was also the first King of the West Saxons to style himself "King of the Anglo-Saxons". Details of Alfred's life are described in a work by the 10th-century Welsh scholar and bishop Asser. A devout Christian, Alfred had a reputation as a learned and merciful man of a gracious and level-headed nature who encouraged education and improved his kingdom's legal system, military structure and his people's quality of life.

Childhood

Alfred was born in the village of Wanating, now Wantage, Oxfordshire. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf of Wessex, by his first wife, Osburh.

King Alfred (poem)

King Alfred is an epic poem by John Fitchett (died 1838) and completed by Robert Roscoe, published in 1841 and 1842.

Overview

The poem narrates - in dramatic terms - King Alfred's ongoing battles against the Danes. Supernatural powers intervene to aid both sides: the Archangel Michael and his hosts - on behalf of the English - and Lucifer and his hosts - on behalf of the Danes.

History

The great work of John Fitchett's life was one which occupied his leisure hours for forty years, and in the composition of which he bestowed unwearied industry and acute research. It was printed at Warrington for private circulation at intervals between 1808 and 1834, in five quarto volumes. It was cast in the form of a romantic epic poem, the subject being the life and times of King Alfred, including, in addition to a biography of Alfred, an epitome of the antiquities, topography, religion, and civil and religious condition of the country. He rewrote part of the work, but did not live to finish it. He left money for printing a new edition, and the work of supervising it was undertaken by his pupil, clerk, and friend, Robert Roscoe [q. v.] (son of William Roscoe of Liverpool), who completed the task by adding 2,585 lines, the entire work containing more than 131,000 lines. This prodigious monument was published by Pickering in 1841-2, in six volumes, 8vo, with the title of 'King Alfred, a Poem.'

King Alfred (disambiguation)

King Alfred usually refers to Alfred the Great. It may also be: