HMS Ajax & River Plate Veterans Association
The Ship's Bells of HMS Ajax
Used to sound the ‘eight bells’ to indicate time and for other functions. Made of brass, Royal Navy bells carry the name of the ship, apparently to assist identification in the event of shipwreck.
As well as the 1935 Commissioning date, this Ajax bell carries the Latin motto “NEC QUISQUAM NISI AJAX”. The literal meaning of the motto is “Not anyone but Ajax”. The motto is a shortened form of “No one is able to overcome Ajax but Ajax himself”. The accepted meaning of the motto is that Ajax is superior to all or “None before Ajax”.
The Bell on Ajax at the time of the River Plate was damaged and presumably replaced during the 1940 re-fit. This damaged Bell was later presented to Uruguay by Admiral Harwood in London on 18th July 1949 and subsequently presented to Montevideo on the 10th Anniversary of The Battle of the River Plate, 13th December 1949. However, ill health prevented the attendance of Admiral Harwood at the latter presentation.
The Bell was hung at the Montevideo Waterfront but was stolen. The subsequent replacement was found to have 'Ajax' misspelt and that too was replaced. This final replacement is now on display in the Naval Museum in Montevideo.
Copies of the two speeches made by Admiral Harwood can be found below:
Right to Left: Camilla Parry, great granddaughter of Admiral Sir Charles Woodhouse; Granddaughter Louise Ashton; husband Richard Ashton.
Another, intact, HMS Ajax Ship’s Bell sits in the Hallway outside the Dining Hall at Kingswood Prep School, Bath, in the Summerhill Mansion. It has been a familiar sight and, formerly, sound, to pupils past and present, of the Kingswood School and previously Hermitage House School, for over seven decades.
Some mystery surrounded the bell; how did it get here and why? Following research by the HMS Ajax & River Plate Veterans Association and notably, the School’s Archivist, Zoë Parsons, the tale appears to be as follows.
In the late forties, certainly 1947 & ’48, three daughters of Charles and Barbara Woodhouse, Jennifer, Hilary and Belinda, attended the Hermitage House School in Bath. Charles Woodhouse was a Royal Navy officer and at the beginning of the Second World War was the Captain of His Majesty’s Ship Ajax, a light cruiser. On 13th December 1939 this ship, together with HM Ships Exeter and Achilles, defeated the larger German Battleship Graf Spee off the River Plate, bordering Uruguay and Argentina, providing the first allied victory of the war: thereafter, Ajax became a household name and indeed, a Town in Ontario, Canada was named after her.
Captain Woodhouse was promoted to the rank of Vice Admiral and in the summer of ’48 was appointed Commander-in-Chief East Indies, Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. He was appointed Knight Commander Order of the Bath [KCB] in 1949.
HMS Ajax survived the War and was “Paid Off”, taken out of service, in February 1948 and was finally scrapped in late 1949.
Thanks to the School archives and the plaque accompanying the bell, which appears to have been written much later, we can be almost certain that: the Ajax Bell, having been taken out of service after 16 February 1948, came into the possession, although probably not physically, of Vice Admiral Woodhouse sometime after he was promoted to that rank on 21 April 1948, but before he was Knighted on 9 June 1949 when the correct honorifics would have been, Vice Admiral Sir Charles and Lady Woodhouse.
The wording of an entry in the October 1949 edition of the School Magazine, “The Anchorite”, makes mention of “A noteworthy presentation to the Hermitage House School by Vice Admiral and Mrs. C.H.L. Woodhouse. …” while an Editorial Comment in the Spring 1949 edition refers to, “… The arrival of the Ship’s Bell of H.M.S. Ajax at the end of term. ...”.
The wording suggests the Bell was “presented”, or more likely gifted to the school elsewhere and delivered in the spring of 1949, which would account for why the two surviving daughters, Hilary and Belinda, were unaware of the existence of the Bell as they had left the previous year when the family moved out to Ceylon.
Wider interest in the Bell was rekindled upon the temporary appointment to the school of a great granddaughter of Admiral Woodhouse, Camilla Parry, who reported back to the family. Her mother Louise Ashton, great aunts Hilary and Belinda, and Hilary’s daughter Caroline Tibbs are all members of the HMS Ajax and River Plate Veterans Association.
The Bell of the HMS Ajax represents a significant historical piece and closely connects the Kingswood School and the HMS Ajax & River Plate Veterans Association, indeed, the School has been made an Honorary Member of the Association to maintain that relationship.