Association Membership

Among the Aims and Objectives of the Association are:

In the furtherance of these Objectives the Association is recognised by the Royal Navy, and we were directly associated with the only ship of the Royal Navy bearing an Algerine name (until recently) - the Type 22 class frigate HMS BRAVE, we are now affiliated to the Minehunter, HMS CHIDDINGFOLD, as well as being connected with the Minesweeping service of the Navy. We are also associated with several Maritime Museums and Preservation Societies through Corporate Membership of the Imperial War Museum, the Maritime Museum and the Portsmouth Royal Navy Museum. In addition we have a display at the Eden Camp Theme Museum at Malton in N. Yorkshire. In 1988 with the support and generosity of the Lothian Regional Council the Association was allowed to erect a Memorial Cairn on the site of the former Minesweeping and Fishery Protection Base at Port Edgar, South Queensferry, Firth of Forth, which remembers all the men and ships of the Service based there between 1940 and 1975.

The Association does not forget the future Royal Navy and is actively linked with a number of Sea Cadet Units which bear an Algerine name - TS Brave, TS Lennox and TS Mary Rose in Britain; in Australia, TS Marmion - and with TS Lochinvar at South Queensferry, Scotland.

The Association sends a quarterly newsletter - The Sweeper - to all its members and periodically issues a Membership List whch is updated each quarter. Members are encouraged to contact old shipmates through this list. The Association has its own Tie, Blazer Badge and Lapel Badge, all of which bear the Association motif - an Algerian Sword surmounting two crossed pistols - based on the ship's badge of the first of the class, HMS ALGERINE. Each year a Reunion Weekend is held, usually in May, alternating between a north and south venue, and regional events are also arranged during the year.

FULL MEMBERSHIP is open to all who have served in any ship of the Algerine-class at any time.

ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP is at the discretion of the Committee and may be granted to those who served in other Naval Vessels with the Algerines - notably the danlayers, Halcyons, BAMS, Smokey Joes and Bangors - as well as WRNS who were connected with the ships.

FAMILY MEMBERSHIP is available to all relatives of any who served in Algerines or who are members of the Association.

Included in the membership are those who served in the Canadian, Belgian, and South African Algerines, as well as many living in Malta, USA, Spain, Australia and New Zealand.

I do hope you will join us, and I look forward to hearing from you and meeting you sometime in the future.

Yours sincerely,

As explained briefly above, the Association's motif of an Algerian sword surmounting two crossed pistols is based on the badge of HMS ALGERINE, the eighth of her name in the Royal Navy and the name of the Class of Fleet Minesweepers which the Association proudly commemorates.

Unfortunately, whilst on anti-submarine patrol off Bougie, North Africa on November 15^th 1942, HMS ALGERINE was sunk by an Italian submarine Ascianghi with the loss of all her Officers and more than 80 of her ship's company. Although 33 survivors were picked up, a further 15 died later from their wounds.

The choice of crossed sword and pistols for ALGERINE by the College of Heralds was particularly apt because, the sword depicted is a typically Algerian sword with a curved handle, and the pistols are those associated with the Barbery Pirates of the 17^th and 18^th Centuries, whose ships were often engaged by ships of the Royal Navy during that period. Indeed, in 1699 one of those Royal Navy ships, a 40-gun vessel, the MARY ROSE, was awarded a Battle Honour for a successful operation - in 1943, another MARY ROSE, this time, appropriately, an Algerine, was launched.