麻豆社

Leicestershire now has a Royal Navy ship to call its own. Civic leaders and the Royal Navy have agreed that the Portsmouth-based destroyer will be affiliated once HMS Daring completes a multi-million-pound transformation.

It means the ship will fly the flag for the city and county wherever she deploys around the world and in return, the people of Leicester and Leicestershire will offer moral and, at times, physical support to the destroyer and her 200-strong crew.

All Royal Navy warships enjoy affiliations with towns, cities or boroughs and, occasionally, with entire counties.

The city of Leicester has previously had ties with battle-cruiser and then nuclear submarine HMS Renown, while minehunter HMS Quorn was associated with the Quorn hunt and the borough of Melton Mowbray until she decommissioned in 2017.

麻豆社 Leicester's Ben Jackson spoke to Commander Graham Hazelwood.