Men of the first commission (1993-1995) of the 7th HMS Monmouth, including their commanding officer, Graham Ramsay, came to Monmouth for the weekend to celebrate their 30th Anniversary Reunion.

It coincided with the commissioning of a new truck of the Diamond Freight Fleet bearing the name of the now-decommissioned ship.

It came about when a former Petty Officer for HMS Monmouth, Kevin Mowat, had been contacted by a colleague who lived in Stoke-on-Trent to say there was a fleet of lorries and vans operating out of the city bearing the names of Royal Navy ships.

So he went to see the owner of the company, Simon Knight of Diamond Haulage, to see if they could try to persuade him to adopt the name of HMS Monmouth.

Simon was only too pleased to help as his dad served on HMS Diamond and so Simon has named all of his haulage fleet after Royal Navy ships and submarines. HMS Monmouth was to be the 88th vehicle to carry on the tradition.

Normally, Simon arranges for any crew and RNA members to launch the vehicle at the headquarters in Stoke, but Kevin persuaded him to come to the Monnow Bridge as that was the logo of the ship and was the 30 year reunion of HMS crew.

Keeping it a secret from his wife, Simon had all the arrangements made, however she had unknowingly booked a trip to Italy for that weekend so the driver, Trevor Adams, stood in for him.

The cab of the truck is painted up on each side with a silhouette of the ship, her crest – The Monnow Bridge - and her motto ‘Fear Nothing but God’.

Following a short blessing by RNA Chaplain, Rev Catherine Haynes, the unveiling was carried out by ‘Retd’ Commander Graham Ramsey (the first commissioned Captain).

Kevin told the Beacon that he saw HMS Monmouth being built at the Yarrow ship builders, “saw her joined up, welded together and sent on her sea trials”. However he added that she now sits rusting away in a dock in Portsmouth, “she is either destined to be towed out to sea and sunk as a marine conservation project, or scrapped and be turned into shaving blades,” he added. The offer of the ship to the Chilean navy fell through.