Laforey Parade

The Laforey parade will step off from the Guildhall at 11am, following two loops of a route along St Giles’ Street, down Hazelwood Road and up Derngate, back to St Giles’ Square. At the end of the parade, cadets will salute local dignitaries, including Brigadier David Russell-Parsons, Deputy Lord-Lieutenant of Northamptonshire and the Mayor of Northampton.

Formal proceedings begin in the Guildhall Courtyard at 10.15am, with a march of the guard and parade inspection taking place ahead of a service of remembrance at approximately 10.30am.

HMS Laforey was adopted by the community of Northampton in 1941 during ‘Warship Week’, a Royal Navy fundraising initiative which saw towns and cities in Britain raise money towards building naval ships. The town raised more than £750,000 to fund HMS Laforey and she was assigned to several operations in Mediterranean Sea, including escorting a relief convoy to Malta as part of Operation Halberd.

Local charities, churches and schools also provided the ship’s crew with gloves, socks and hats, while school children wrote them letters. When officers and men from the adopted ship visited the local community, a celebratory parade was organised in their honour.

Sadly, the ship sank on the 30th March 1944 after she was hit by torpedoes from a German U-boat, and only 65 of the 247 men on board survived.