Beautiful thick cast tread plate, from HMS Royalist (89) : A Light Cruiser Across Two Wars (1942-1968). She served the British Empire in World War II and beyond. Light cruiser of the Royal Navy and Royal New Zealand Navy during the Second World War and early Cold War.

HMS Royalist served for a short period in the Arctic theater. In this capacity, she was flagship of Operation Tungsten, the carrier raid in April 1944 against the German battleship Tirpitz in a Norwegian fjord. She was then ordered to the Mediterranean to support the Operation Dragoon landings in the South of France becoming Flagship of the joint RN & USN task force that was tasked with maintaining air superiority over the beaches and the support of landing operations. Following Dragoon She was assigned the Aegean Force and then to the East Indies Fleet where She became Flagship again during Operation Dracula & Mitre. After the War She was transferred to the New Zealand Navy where most notably She was heavily involved in the Suez Crisis, and continued to have a busy service in the Pacific.

Note :  This Royal Navy tread plate came from the famous Ferrers Walker collection. Mr Ferrers Walker spent a lifetime collecting the largest and most significant WW l and WW ll Naval history artefacts. He gave his collection to Portsmouth Naval Museum to exhibit.