The ensign has been hauled down for the last time, heralding the end of an illustrious 34-year career for RFA Sir Percivale.

The veteran landing ship has been prepared for Extended Readiness, and is due to be put up for disposal towards the end of the year.

The haul-down took place in Portsmouth, watched by many serving and ex-RFA personnel who had fond memories of the ship.

Members of the ship’s affiliated Sea Cadet Corps unit, TS Cossack at Crawley, providing colours party and guides, and music from a Sea Cadet Band drawn from units at Tunbridge Wells, High Wycombe and Windsor and Eton.

The salute was taken by Commodore Bob Thornton and Capt (E) John Lawson, and a party was thrown to celebrate the ship’s service.

Sir Percivale was built by Hawthorn Leslie Shipbuilders, and transferred to RFA service in 1970.

She has served all round the world, on operations, exercises and humanitarian missions.

She won a Battle Honour in the Falklands, and was one of the first ships to sail for the South Atlantic at the start of the crisis, with three helicopters and 300 troops on board.

She went on to lead the amphibious assault force into San Carlos, remaining in the area throughout the bombing, and she had the honour of being the first ship into Port Stanley after the Argentine surrender.

She was also the last British naval vessel to leave Hong Kong when the colony reverted to China in 1997.

Sir Percivale has also been deployed to the Adriatic, and in 2000 she was the resident ship alongside in Freetown, Sierra Leone for almost a year, supporting British forces ashore.

She participated in both Gulf Wars, and in the most recent conflict she was part of the British Amphibious Task Group, later following sister ship RFA Sir Galahad into Um Qasr to bring humanitarian aid into the recently-liberated port for the beleaguered people of southern Iraq.