Hawthorn M-class destroyer
1915 class of British destroyers
The Hawthorn M (or Mansfield) Class were a class of two destroyers built for the Royal Navy under the pre-war 1913-14 Programme for World War I service.
They were similar to the Admiralty M class, but completed to a modified design by Hawthorn Leslie and Company, Hebburn on Tyne. They had four funnels instead of the three funnels of the Admiralty design; as a consequence, they were the last four-funnelled destroyers (apart from Leaders) to be built for the Royal Navy. The midships 4 inch gun was shipped between the second and third funnels. Both ships were laid down on 9 July 1914 and completed in 1915. Both survived the war and were scrapped in 1921,
Hawthorn Leslie subsequently received orders for two further M class destroyers as part of the large batch of orders placed in May 1915, but these two - Pidgeon and Plover - were built to the Admiralty M class design.
Ships
Mentor, launched 21 August 1914, completed January 1915, sold for breaking up 9 May 1921 to Thos. W. Ward at Hayle.
Mansfield, launched 3 December 1914, completed April 1915, sold for breaking up 26 October 1921 to Barking Ship Breaking Company.
“Hawthorn M-class destroyer” enters the record as 1915 class of British destroyers. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Hawthorn, M-class and destroyer can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Hawthorn M-class destroyer” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Hawthorn, M-class and destroyer provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q645551. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1913, 1914, 1915 and 1921.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Hawthorn M-class destroyer”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Hawthorn M-class destroyer primary sources, Hawthorn M-class destroyer archive and Hawthorn research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Hawthorn M-class destroyer”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Hawthorn M-class destroyer” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.