The badge was well executed, but it was unlike any known to have been displayed in the IROQUOIS, nor was the Canadian warship ever known to have presented a copy of her badge to the Sea Cadet Corps. The commanding officer of the corps, however, felt that it must have been a gift of Canadian origin, for he had first seen it when the corps moved into a building formerly used by the RCN as a canteen.
 

Photo of Lt. Bell.

More than a generation earlier, "Daisy" Bell had served as a young sailor in HMS IROQUOIS on the China Station. His vivid memories of service in the ship spurred in him a determination to see that the badge came home to her Canadian namesake. The task was to involve Lt. Bell in a tangle of correspondence and personal expense, but his efforts met with a Success that was reflected in a ceremony in Portsmouth, England, on Sunday, October 9, 1960, in which the badge was ceremoniously handed over to Cdr. H. W. A. Moxley, commanding officer of HMCS IROQUOIS. Lt. Bell had originally offered to buy the badge and present it to the IROQUOIS, provided that it would be given to the Maritime Museum of Canada in Halifax, once the name IROQUOIS was removed from the roster of commissioned ships in the RCN. But the Sea Cadets would have nothing to do with the sale of their prized badge. Instead, they proposed to make a gift of it to the IROQUOIS, under the condition that Lt. Bell had proposed - that it go to the Maritime Museum once the IROQUOIS was paid off for good.
 
 

After the ceremony, the cadets were taken in small groups by their IROQUOIS hosts for a thorough tour of the ship. Then, to the music of the unit band, the cadets marched past Cdr. Moxley and returned to their headquarters in the Royal Navy Barracks. "A fine body of boys," said Cdr. Moxley. The IROQUOIS welfare committee has since approved a donation of $50 for the sports fund of the Londonderry cadets.
 
 

(Above) Three IROQUOIS badges. The one in the center long prized by Sea Cadets in Londonderry, Northern Ireland who thought it was a gift from a Canadian ship was identified by Lt. W.E.F. Bell of Ottawa as the badge of a survey ship, HMS IROQUOIS in which he served. At the left is the badge worn by HMCS IROQUOIS near the close of WWII; at the right the official ship's badge of today. (L to R: HS-1573-2; CN-3120; O-893-29)

Lt. Bell recalls that the ship which started this sequence of events was converted from one of the double-ender 1917-18 "Q" ships, designed for anti-submarine duty. He questions whether she had a name when she first put to sea, probably being simply "Q number so-and-so." "However, she was pulled out of the reserve in Saltash Creek, Devonport, and refitted as a survey ship for the Royal Navy. She was named HMS IROQUOIS and served on the China Station, relieving the old HMS Merlin, which was just about ready to come apart at the seams." He made some notes on the ship's first commission on the back page of his photograph album, which show that she was commissioned at Devonport on November 30, 1922, sailed from there on December 8 and arrived at Hong Kong on May 2, 1923. She spent her commission in survey duties off the Malay States and in South China seas, including the original survey for the Singapore naval base and dockyard. She was paid off at Hong Kong on June 12, 1925.

That may explain why the badge finished up in Derry," he said. Lt. Bell has described the thrill he received when he learned that the badge of his old ship had come to light. "Believe me," he wrote to Cdr. Hanington, "the description of the badge in The Crowsnest literally leaped out of the page at me. It was a beautiful badge and we were proud of it in its uniqueness in the RN and proud of our ship. She was a hard-working ship, with a hard-working crew; surveying at sea and in the jungle was tough, even if it was only 35 years ago. "You may be sure that we of the first IROQUOIS never imagined what the second IROQUOIS would be like. Nevertheless, you may be proud of the fact that the first of the name worked hard in a job which contributed much to the safety of all the ships which followed her in those far off waters-even if Admiral Levison did send us a signal on entering harbour on one occasion, to the effect that we looked like a Chinese laundry under weigh."

In a rare photo taken in May 1957, Leading Seaman Lawrence Redman stands next to a badge of Iroquois described in the story above. Today, the official badge of the ship has the Iroquois brave facing left. (Photo provided by Lawrence Redman . It was not part of the original story.)