HMS Premier at sea c.1944

HMS Premier (D23) British Escort Carrier

HMS Premier (D23)

HMS Premier (D23) was a Ruler-class escort carrier (Bogue-class in the US Navy) of the British Navy in World War Two. Launched on 22 March 1943 at the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation, she was transferred to the Royal Navy and commissioned on 3 November 1943.

During the Second World War, she served as a convoy escort and aircraft transport in the North Atlantic and European waters. HMS Premier was returned to the US in April 1946, where she was sold into merchant service as the Rhodesia Star (later renamed Hong Kong Knight) in 1947. She was scrapped in Taiwan in 1974.