1953–1956

Duchess was initially assigned to the British Home Fleet in January 1953.^[11] During January, the ship was involved in training exercises with other Home Fleet units.^[11] On 26 January, while alongside in Portland Harbour, a furnace explosion and oil fire in A boiler room killed a stoker and severely burned three others.^[11] Although able to sail that afternoon, it took a further ten days of dockyard work to repair the damage.^[11] During February and March, Duchess and other ships of the Home Fleet sailed to Gibraltar for exercises.^[11] Most of April was taken up with self-maintenance, and May was spent on further training.^[11] At the end of May, Duchess, Daring, and Swiftsure sailed to London, where they participated in the opening celebrations of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.^[11] After a brief visit to the Isle of Wight, Duchess sailed to Spithead for the Coronation Fleet Review, which occurred on 15 June.^[11] After the review, Duchess, Swiftsure, and Agincourt visited east coast ports before sailing to Invergordon for fleet exercises.^[12] During the exercises, Duchess was plane guard for the carrier Eagle.^[12] Duchess returned to Portsmouth in July, underwent six weeks of maintenance, then sailed on 1 September to rejoin Eagle and other ships for exercises in the Denmark Strait.^[12] The exercise ended on 3 October, and after transporting personnel of 812 Naval Air Squadron to Loch Goyle, Duchess joined Eagle while the latter undertook flying training.^[12] On 6 October, a helicopter crashed while attempting to deliver mail to the destroyer: Duchess' seaboat was able to rescue one of the two flight crew, while the other sank with the helicopter.^[12] Duchess continued to accompany Eagle until 24 October, when she detached to return to Portsmouth.^[12] The rest of 1953, along with most of January 1954, was spent in refit.^[12]

On 5 February, Duchess joined units of the Home Fleet on the Spring Training Cruise.^[12] The cruise included multi-national exercises in the Mediterranean, a port visit to Oran, and a joint Home-Mediterranean Fleets exercise.^[12] Duchess returned to Portsmouth on 23 March.^[12] On 29 April, the destroyer departed for Gibraltar to meet the royal yacht Britannia, which was carrying Queen Elizabeth II on the final legs of her Commonwealth Tour.^[12] Duchess was part of the escort force until Britannia reached the Thames Estuary on 13 May.^[13] The destroyer then proceeded to Invergordon for Home Fleet exercises.^[13] On 19 June, Duchess and sister ship HMS Diamond were detached for a three-week flag-showing cruise around the Baltic Sea.^[13] Port visits were made to Oslo, Copenhagen, and Stockholm before Duchess returned to Portsmouth.^[13] On 31 August, the ship was paid off and recommissioned.^[13] She was reassigned to the Mediterranean Fleet, and sailed on 10 September for Malta.^[10][13] On 15 October, Duchess was part of a demonstration of naval power for the Emperor of Ethiopia.^[13] The rest of the year was spent on exercises, including NATO exercise Novex 54, along with port visits to Elba with the cruiser Jamaica in November.^[14] In early January 1955, Jamaica and Duchess made a formal visit to Algiers, which was then followed by more exercises.^[14] On 24 March, while moored at Naples, Duchess was rammed by the United States merchant ship SS Excambion.^[14] Damage to the destroyer included punctured hull plating on the starboard bow, impact damage to the starboard stern plates where the collision forced them into the wharf, and damage to the superstructure.^[14] Temporary repairs were effected, and the destroyer was able to sail to the Malta Dockyard on 30 March.^[14] Repairs took most of April, and it was not until 22 May that the ship was deployed again, on a cruise to the eastern Mediterranean.^[15] Duchess visited Istanbul, Alexandria, and Cyprus before returning to Malta's Grand Harbour on 22 June.^[15] Two days later, with her Mediterranean deployment at an end, Duchess departed for Portsmouth via Gibraltar.^[15] On her 1 July arrival, the destroyer was docked for maintenance.^[15]

Resuming operations on 28 September, Duchess sailed to Scottish waters for exercises: first anti-submarine and torpedo firing training off Clyde, then plane guard duties near Rosyth while Eagle's aircraft practiced high-altitude intercepts.^[15] After a visit to Hamburg, the destroyer returned to Portland.^[15] Exercises and port visits continued into 1956, and on 21 February, Duchess paid off and recommissioned at Portsmouth Dockyard.^[15] On 3 March, the destroyer sailed to rejoin the Mediterranean Fleet.^[16] After a series of working up exercises, Duchess participated in the 60-ship Exercise Medflex Dragon in April.^[16] During the exercise, the naval correspondent for The Daily Telegraph was convinced by the officers to place a small article in the paper jokingly asking for "any spare coronets" to decorate the wardroom with.^[16] In response, Anne, Duchess of Westminster, arranged to have her coronet supplied to the destroyer.^[16] Medflex Dragon concluded on 20 April, and Duchess underwent six weeks of maintenance.^[16] Port visits to Istanbul and Golcuck followed, along with a stint patrolling the Cyprus coastline to intercept Greek weapons smugglers.^[17] She returned to Malta in mid-July, and was in Grand Harbour when the Suez Canal was claimed and nationalised by Egypt.^[17]

Suez Crisis

The Mediterranean Fleet began gearing up to retaliate, with Duchess undertaking shore bombardment and convoy escort training during August and September, and also serving as plane guard to Eagle as the carrier worked up.^[17] On 29 October, Duchess left Malta to join the escort of the carriers Eagle, Albion, and Bulwark.^[17] The carrier force arrived off the Egyptioan coast on 31 October, and on 1 November, airstrikes commenced.^[17] During this, Duchess was plane guard for Eagle.^[17] On 6 November, the joint British-French invasion commenced, with the destroyer escorting one of the landing craft groups into shore, then standing by off Port Said for anti-air and anti-submarine defence.^[17] During 7 and 8 November, Duchess performed patrols off Port Said and was rotated through the plane guard stations of all three carriers.^[17] On 9 November, Duchess departed for Malta.^[17] She returned to Port Said on 17 November, and was again attached to the carrier force as an escort and plane guard.^[17] From 27 November to 16 December, the destroyer was sent to Cyprus for more anti-smuggler patrols, but the ship was recalled to cover the final withdrawal of British forces from Port Said.^[17] She remained in or near Port Said Harbour until 22 December: although due to sail that morning with the last troop convoy, Duchess remained on station until 20:00 in the unsuccessful hope that a junior officer of the West Yorkshire Regiment kidnapped early in the crisis would be returned.^[17] Consequently, Duchess was the last Royal Navy vessel to leave Port Said at the end of the Suez Crisis.^[18]

1957–1964

After spending Christmas at Grand Harbour, Duchess sailed from Malta on 1 January 1957 with sister ships Decoy and Diamond, bound for Portsmouth.^[18] After a three-month maintenance docking, Duchess was assigned to the Home Fleet.^[18] On 17 May, Duchess and Diamond sailed to meet the Royal Yacht Britannia at the River Humber.^[18] Britannia was conveying Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh to Denmark for a state visit.^[18] The two destroyers accompanied the royal yacht to Copenhagen, then back to the Moray Firth at the visit's conclusion.^[18] On 28 May, the destroyers rejoined the Home Fleet for a fleet review.^[18] The destroyers were then assigned to escort the carrier Ark Royal, with the three ships departing on 30 May for the International Naval Review at Hampton Roads in the United States.^[18] The review occurred on 12 June, after which Duchess sailed to Bermuda, then back to the United Kingdom.^[19] On her return, the ship visited Liverpool for the 750th anniversary of King John's Charter founding the city, then proceeded to Portsmouth.^[19] On 27 August, Duchess paid off and was recommissioned.^[20]

Duchess at the port city of Rotterdam in 1958

On 3 September, Duchess left Portsmouth to join the Mediterranean Fleet as leader of the 5th Destroyer Squadron.^[21] Workups were conducted at Silema Creek during September, followed by port visits to Tripoli and Civitavecchia in October, then self-maintenance and day sails from Malta for the rest of the year.^[21] 1958 commenced with a seven-week Cyprus patrol.^[21] By the end of the patrol on 21 February, the destroyer had developed a leak in her hull, but was able to reach Malta without difficulty.^[21] March consisted of participation in Exercise Marjex, followed by port visits to Taranto and Ancona, joint exercises with the Italian Navy, and a visit to Venice before returning to Malta.^[21] Major fleet exercises occurred in April and early May.^[21] Duchess was due to return to the United Kingdom in May, but unrest in Lebanon (which would escalate into the 1958 Lebanon crisis) required the destroyer to join a response force off Cyprus, which she remained with until 4 July.^[21] The destroyer sailed to Malta, then Portsmouth, and was docked for maintenance after arriving on 11 July.^[21] Work concluded in September, and Duchess spent the next three months undertaking exercises and port visits in British, Dutch, and French waters.^[21] The destroyer reached Spithead on 9 December, and was paid off into reserve later that day.^[21] The destroyer was taken into Portsmouth Dockyard hands for a two-year refit.^[21] Modifications during this period included the deletion of the aft torpedo launcher and its replacement with a deckhouse for additional accommodation, introduction of centralised messing arrangements, and fitting of air-conditioning to the operations room and sickbay.^[22] Intentions at the time were to install a Sea Cat missile launcher on the roof of the new deckhouse during a later refit, but in 1964, the decision was made to fit the launcher to new-build ships only.^[23]

Duchess was recommissioned on 3 January 1961, with post-refit workups and maintenance dominating the ship's activities until early April.^[24] From April until July, she was involved in a program of anti-submarine warfare training and general exercises, interspersed with short maintenance periods.^[24] On 24 July, Duchess sailed from Portsmouth, bound for Malta and the Mediterranean Fleet.^[24] On 7 August, while en route, a port visit to Ajaccio was almost cancelled when a possible mutiny aboard a British merchant ship was reported: the destroyer was to sail to assist, but was not required.^[24] Duchess reached Grand Harbour on 18 August, and was drydocked for maintenance.^[24] Returning to service in September, the rest of Duchess' year was dominated by exercises and flag-showing port visits.^[25] Exercises and port visits resumed in January 1962, and continued until 26 March, when the destroyer left Malta heading for Portsmouth.^[26] In addition to the schedule of Home Fleet exercises, Duchess made official visits to Stockholm and Helsinki with Bermuda in May, underwent refit from July to October, as in November was part of the search for the helicopter that crashed off St David's Head carrying Lord Windlesham.^[26] On 17 December, the ship's fifth commission was paid off.^[26]

Duchess was recommissioned on 2 January 1963.^[26] Originally intended to be deployed with the Mediterranean Fleet, the December 1962 Brunei Revolt and tensions in South East Asia that would shortly escalate into the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation prompted a strengthening of British assets in the region, including the assignment of Duchess to the Far East Fleet.^[27] The destroyer left Portsmouth on 8 April bound for Singapore, with visits en route to Gibraltar, Malta, Port Said, and Aden.^[28] Arriving on 12 June, the ship spent the next few weeks on day exercises, before being docked in the King George VI Graving Dock for three weeks of maintenance.^[29] Tactical exercises took up late July and early August, after which, Duchess was deployed to patrol off North Borneo and Sarawak.^[29] A visit to Hong Kong occurred in early September, followed by guardship duties off Sandakan.^[29] Further patrols of North Borneo occurred in October, and on 7 November, the destroyer was called to assist the British merchantman Woodburn, which had run aground off Singapore's Horsburgh Lighthouse.^[29] Exercises continued until 23 December, when Duchess arrived at Singapore for maintenance and leave.^[30] She resumed operations on 10 February 1964, transporting a contingent of Gurkhas to the Sarawak River, then visited Hong Kong.^[30]