HMS Vanguard was commissioned with a Portsmouth crew at Devonport in October 1951 under the command of Captain John Shirley Lichfield OBE. RN. It was not then generally known that her first task would be to take the late King on another voyage to South Africa for rest and healing and it was with heavy hearts that news was heard over the radio, in the midst of feverish preparations for the voyage, the sad news of his passing. The shock numbed the crew and all wondered what was to happen next. Yet, so stunned were they with the sudden change in events, that even guesswork failed them, and HMS Vanguard sailed out into the Sound and anchored in Cawsand Bay on 22nd February,1952.
On Monday 12th May, after Easter leave, the C.in C. hoisted his flag. We left Portsmouth for the Summer Cruise on 17th May and sailed for Portland and arrived the same day. Sailing, pulling, fishing and playing games occupied a pleasant stay there but more serious business loomed on the horizon. Exercise Castenets lay ahead of us and we sailed from Portland for Rosyth on 12th June and arrived there on 14th June. Exercise Castenets was our first effort at war and started on 18th June. We sailed with high hopes that day and at high speed but Vanguard was sunk and we slunk rather shamefacedly back to Rosyth. We felt very ashamed and disgraced as our attempts to foil the machinations of Frogmen and Midget Submarines were not so whole-hearted as they might have been. But bright lights lay ahead.