AN UNOFFICIAL PATTERN SHIP'S 6IN. TAMPION FROM THE LIGHT CRUISER H.M.S. COVENTRY, CIRCA 1916

cast in brass with profile elephant and castle with lion over, and motto AVIS MEA CREDO under within rope border, mounted to a circular section of circuit board, the tampion -- 7in. (18cm.) wide

Built by Swan Hunter in 1916 but not comissioned until February 1918, Coventry was a C-Class light cruiser of just over 4,000 tons and capable of 29 knots. Assigned to the Atlantic Fleet, from 1920 she was HQ ship to Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham. As WWII approached she was converted to an anti-aircraft cruiser to meet the threat of increasingly sophisticated aircraft and was damaged by German aircraft attacking the Shetland islands in January 1940. Assigned to the Mediterranean, she survived an Italian torpedo attack and, on 18th May 1941, won the campaign's first VC, awarded posthumously to Albert Sephton for his defence against repeated Stuka dive bomb attacks. On 14th September 1942 she was attacked by a squadron of Junkers 88s and damaged to such an extent H.M.S. Zulu was obliged to scuttle her. Her official pattern badge, also an elephant and castle, was granted on 2nd December 1919.