HMS Cardiff sailed back to Portsmouth deployment having secured an unusual honour.

The Type 42 destroyer, which is due to decommission next year after her final deployment to the Mediterranean, has spent the past six months in the South Atlantic and off West Africa.

While the ship was at Freetown in Sierra Leone, around 100 of her ship’s company carried out building work at a local school.

And the country’s president, Ahmed Kabbah, was so impressed that he renamed the institution in their honour.

Hill Station Preparatory School is now preceded by the name Cardiff as a thank-you for the building and fitting-out of four brick classrooms over the course of a week in June.

The President may have been encouraged by a touch of nostalgia – years ago he studied at University College, Cardiff, part of the University of Wales.

The destroyer’s Commanding Officer, Cdr Mike Beardall, said: “HMS Cardiff is extremely proud and honoured to be recognised by the President and school in this way.

“The ship’s company who worked at the school did a tremendous job in extreme heat, and we are delighted that the ship’s name will live on in Sierra Leone.”

Cardiff sailors also lent a hand at Casa Jimmy’s, an orphanage in Rio de Janeiro set up by Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin fame, while the ship was in South America. A bundle of donated gifts was also handed over.

Cardiff spent three months on patrol in the Falklands, and the time proved particularly memorable for CPO Nick Pocock, who won top prize in the ship’s raffle – a flight over the islands in an RAF Tornado.

The draw raised £400 for the ship’s charity, Craig Y Parc school in Cardiff.

View the HMS Cardiff fact card