The ship's first two commissions were spent in the Mediterranean from July 1945 to July 1949. During this period the Jewish Illegal Immigration problem was at its height and the ship did her fair share of patrols in the Eastern Mediterranean. The ship was responsible for intercepting and boarding at least four of the Immigrant ships during that period.
The years in the Mediterranean were uneventful for the ship so it was with hopes of new horizons, places and people that the St Brides Bay sailed for the Far East Fleet under the command of Commander A H Dyack, RN who had succeeded Lieutenant R A St.C. Sproul Boulton, Lieutenant Commander A. Halifax, RN and Commander G M Bennett. DSC, RN.
It wasn't until Commander W C Elder, OBE, RN had relinquished the command of the ship to Commander G Weston RN that the ship took part in anything that was not connected with the daily run of events - WAR.
The United Nations forces in Korea were being sorely pressed by the Northern Korean forces at the time St Brides Bay set sail for the American base of Sasebo, Japan, and it was from Sasebo that she was operating when she made a name for herself that was heard in homes in England and America.
Out in the turbulent waters of Korea along with the HMS Whitsand Bay and the USS John R Pierce, St Brides Bay patrolled the coast shelling shore installations, trenches, gun outposts and railway trains, and came through it all untouched whereas both the Whitsand Bay and the John R Pierce received damage to the ship. Perhaps the only individual name to echo through the homes of Britain and the United States (other than those self acclaimed) was that of Surgeon Lieutenant Ian Mackay, a National Serviceman straight from training at Guy's Hospital, London. The doctor aided by the SBA of an American LCT operated on several men who had received wounds, two of which had been written off as fatal. With little or no experience he performed a Laucotony operation on an American Ensign whose head had been split open by a shell, and a stomach operation (to remove a bullet) on a Seaman. The other three that he operated on had superficial wounds.
Although not anything especially heroic this incident earned the ship a name and St Brides Bay was talked about in many countries shortly after this. Maybe the general public has passed the incident by but there are at least 5 people who will never forget St Brides Bay and her young doctor.
The ships company of HMS Newcastle also had cause to thank the St Brides Bay during the Korean action. During hostilities the Newcastle had come under heavy fire from shore batteries and was being consistently straddled. St Brides Bay sailed in between the Newcastle and the shore and with well directed shots silenced the guns that could have reduced to a wreck one of the Navy's best cruisers.
After this incident the St Brides Bay went 'Carrier Chasing' along the Korean Coast along with such well known ships as the Glory, Ocean, Bataan, Oriskany and Badoeing Straits, and followed this with liaison with the USAF on Pyongyang do.
With the armistice signed, St Brides Bay returned to Hong Kong, received a new crew, and went on her way, patrolling the still troubled waters of the Formosa Straits and Malaya, and to drop back again to a state of mere existence.
Some of you who may have been on the ship during the Korean campaign may say that this is only a very incomplete record of what the ship did in that war, and others who have been on the ship at some other time may say that their time on the ship was much more active than this article depicts. However, and it is obvious that such things are very true, perhaps they will forgive me for my omissions and be consoled by the statement that this is not meant to be a complete record of St Brides Bay's life but rather a small way of showing that the ship is in no way insignificant and that she is a terrier amongst her kind. If people remark 'St Brides Bay?' with a tone of incredulity, don't be apologetic that you have not the record of some of the cruisers and destroyers of World War II, just remember that the ship has done, and done well, everything she has been asked to do.