HMS Jervis Bay was a British liner later converted into an armed merchant cruiser, pennant F40.

She was launched in 1922, and sunk in battle on 5 November 1940 by the German heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer in an action which earned her captain the Victoria Cross.

In new ownership, Jervis Bay used Southampton as her UK port instead of London, as had been the case under Commonwealth Line management.

[3] When the convoy encountered the German warship Admiral Scheer about 755 nautical miles (1,398 km) south-southwest of Reykjavík, the captain of Jervis Bay, Edward Fegen, ordered the convoy to scatter, and set his own ship on a course towards the German warship to draw its fire.

[6] Sixty-eight survivors of Jervis Bay's crew of 254 were picked up by the neutral Swedish ship Stureholm [sv] (three later died of their wounds).

The citation for his award reads: For valour in challenging hopeless odds and giving his life to save the many ships it was his duty to protect.

On the 5th of November, 1940, in heavy seas, Captain Fegen, in His Majesty's Armed Merchant Cruiser Jervis Bay, was escorting thirty-eight Merchantmen.

Sighting a powerful German warship he at once drew clear of the Convoy, made straight for the Enemy, and brought his ship between the Raider and her prey, so that they might scatter and escape.

Crippled, in flames, unable to reply, for nearly an hour the Jervis Bay held the German's fire.

The monument was unveiled on 5 November 1941, in front of a Guard of Honour provided by the Royal Marines detachment of Despatch, by Vice Admiral Sir Charles Kennedy-Purvis, Commander-in-Chief of the America and West Indies Station, who said: To-day is the anniversary of a very gallant naval deed, that of the action of H.M.S.

On November 5th towards evening she was steaming in the centre of the front line of a big convoy of nearly forty ships.

[10]A small ceremony is held before the monument every Remembrance Day (following the larger parade in front of the Cenotaph commemorating all of the territory's dead of the two world wars) in which personnel from the Royal Navy, the Royal Naval Association,[11] and the Sea Cadet Corps take part.

[12][13][14] There is a monument to Captain Fegen and the crew of Jervis Bay at Ross Memorial Park in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.

The Australian poet Michael Thwaites wrote a ballad about Jervis Bay in 1941, while he was serving as a naval officer in the Atlantic.

The encounter between Jervis Bay and Admiral Scheer is also narrated in a short story in Alistair MacLean's book The Lonely Sea.

In the Ant and Cleo novels by Dominic Green, a British space fleet names one of its cruisers in the Jervis Bay's honour.