This was the sixth Royal Navy ship to bear the name of Arethusa, she was built at Chatham Dockyard, laid down in October 1912 and was completed in August 1914.

Like the WW2 cruiser she was the name ship of a new class of Light Cruisers that were to be the first British cruisers with all oil propulsion. The other ships in the Arethusa class were Aurora, Galatea, Inconstant, Penelope, Phaeton, Royalist and Undaunted.

• 28 August 1914 took part in the Battle of Heligoland Bight.
• 25 December 1914 Took part in the Cuxhaven Raid.
• 24 January 1915 took part in Battle of Dogger Bank.
• June 1915 5th Light Cruiser Squadron Harwich Force
  under the command of Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt
  (whos wife would later be at the launch of the next ship to bear the name).
• September 1915 Captured four German trawlers.
• 11 February 1916 Sunk by mine of Felixstowe

Henry Chick's Granddaughter sent in this picture of him and some of the other crew from Arethusa circa 1915.
(Photo courtesy of Rita Palmer nee Chick)

You may not appreciate that I have retouched many of the photos on the site, some more than others.