HMS Centurion

Eight ships and a shore establishment of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Centurion, after the centurions of ancient Rome. A ninth ship was planned but never built.

Ships

• was a 34-gun ship launched in 1650 and wrecked in 1689.
• was a 48-gun fourth-rate launched in 1691 and broken up in 1728.
• was a 60-gun fourth-rate launched in 1732 and broken up 1769 after George Anson's voyage around the world
• was a 50-gun fourth-rate launched in 1774. She was reduced to harbour service in 1809, sank at her moorings in 1824, and was raised and broken up in 1825.
• HMS Centurion was a 74-gun third-rate launched in 1812 as . She was renamed HMS Centurion in 1826 and was broken up in 1828.
• was an 80-gun third-rate launched in 1844. She was converted to screw propulsion in 1855, and sold in 1870.
• was a Centurion-class battleship launched in 1892 and sold in 1910.
• was a King George V-class battleship launched in 1911. She was converted to a target ship in 1926, rated as an escort ship in 1940, and was sunk off Arromanches as a breakwater in 1944.
• HMS Centurion was to have been a 9,000 ton cruiser, planned in 1945, but cancelled in 1946.

Shore establishment

• was the central drafting depot established at Haslemere in 1956, commissioned in 1957 and named in 1964. The base moved to Gosport, becoming a drafting depot and a pay and accounting centre, in 1970. It was paid off in 1994, becoming Centurion building, a tender to , mainly responsible for personnel and Human Resources functions.

Battle honours

Ships named Centurion have earned the following battle honours:

• Armada, 1588
• Cadiz, 1596
• Dover, 1652
• Portland, 1653
• Gabbard, 1653
• Scheveningen, 1653
• Santa Cruz, 1657
• Lowestoft, 1665
• Four Days' Battle, 1666
• Orfordness, 1666
• Barfleur, 1692
• Velez Malaga, 1704
• Marbella, 1705
• Nuestra Senora de Covadonga, 1743
• Finisterre, 1747
• Louisbourg, 1758
• Quebec, 1759
• Havana, 1762
• St. Lucia, 1778
• China, 1900
• Jutland, 1916
• Normandy, 1944