The Royal Naval Patrol Service has its origins in the Great War when the threat of mine warfare was first realized by the British Admiralty.

The pre-war Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet, Admiral Lord Charles Beresford, is credited with recommending the use of Grimsby trawlers for minesweeping operations following visits he made to various East Coast Ports in 1907.

[1] It was also thought that trawlermen would be more skilled than naval ratings with regards to the handling of the sizeable warps and winches that would be required for mine sweeping as they were already accustomed to using them with the working of the trawl.

[1] HMS Europa, usually known as Sparrow's Nest, became the Central Depot of the Royal Naval Patrol Service, located at Lowestoft, the most easterly point of Great Britain, and then the closest British military establishment to the enemy until decommissioned in 1946.

The Lowestoft War Memorial Museum in the town is housed in the old Royal Naval Patrol Service headquarters building.

[3] Between 1942 and its decommissioning in 1946 new construction ships and craft manned by the Service totalled 1,637 of various kinds including converted trawlers, corvettes, fuel carriers, motor launches and naval seaplane tenders.

[4]The advantages of using small ships for minesweeping and other duties had been recognised in the First World War and many of the crews of the peacetime fishing fleets had been encouraged to join the Royal Naval Reserve.

[2] Because it used out-dated and poorly armed vessels, such as requisitioned trawlers crewed by ex-fishermen, the RNPS came to bear a number of unofficial titles that poked fun at it, such as "Harry Tate's Navy", "Churchill's pirates" and "Sparrows".

W S Churchill[9]The RNPS fought in all theatres of the war, from the Arctic to the Mediterranean, from the Atlantic to the Far East, involved in convoy duty, minesweeping and anti-submarine work.

[2] One RNPS member, Lieutenant Richard Stannard won the Victoria Cross while in command of the Hull trawler Arab in the Namsos campaign.