HMS Leith was a Grimsby-class sloop of the Royal Navy that served in the Second World War.

Leith arrived at Auckland on 13 November 1934, and was deployed in the Pacific and locally in New Zealand waters.

In September 1939 she sailed to Singapore to carry out contraband control duty on the China Station.

On 10 January she was diverted to join the sloops HMS Aberdeen and Bideford, and the destroyers Vidette, Wanderer, Warwick and Witch in escorting the inbound Convoy HG 14 into Liverpool.

After post-repair trials she resumed services with the Western Approaches Command on 12 August with the 41st Escort Group based at Liverpool.

[1] On 28 August she picked up 27 survivors from the Finnish merchant Elle which had been sunk north-east of Ireland by German submarine U-101.

[2] Together with the sloops HMS Scarborough and Fowey and the corvettes Bluebell and Heartsease they attempted unsuccessfully to fight off the wolf pack attacks of a number of U-boats.

Leith rescued survivors from three torpedoed merchant ships including Assyrian and Soesterberg before joining the inbound Convoy HX 79 which had also come under heavy U-boat attack.

The convoy came under attack on 20 December by the Italian submarine Mocenigo, which sank the merchant Manchester General.

On 17 April she began a refit at Avonmouth which lasted until May, when she was nominated for convoy defence based in Newfoundland.

Leith carried out searches for U-boats and rescued the crew of the torpedoed merchant SS Zuiderkerk.

After the arrival of the convoy, Leith underwent the replacement of her underwater dome for her sonar outfit at Greenock.

[1] Also in October Leith was nominated to escort the military convoys for the allied landings in North Africa (Operation Torch).

[1] In August she returned to the Mediterranean, undergoing an extensive refit at Gibraltar in September owing to her deteriorated condition after an extended period in active service in the Atlantic.

The refit lasted until December, and in January 1945 she returned to the UK and joined the 38th Escort Group based at Portsmouth.

[3] She undertook the second Galathea expedition, which circumnavigated the world in 1950–52 while doing deep sea oceanographic research, and was sold to be scrapped at Odense in 1955.