Eight ships and a shore establishment of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 have been named HMS Centurion, after the centurion

Centurion

A centurion was a professional officer of the Roman army .Centurion may also refer to:-Military:* Centurion tank, British battle tank* HMS Centurion, name of several ships and a shore base of the British Royal Navy...

s of ancient Rome

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

. A ninth ship was planned but never built.

Ships was a 34-gun ship launched in 1650 and wrecked in 1689. was a 48-gun fourth-rate

Fourth-rate

In the British Royal Navy, a fourth rate was, during the first half of the 18th century, a ship of the line mounting from 46 up to 60 guns. While the number of guns stayed subsequently in the same range up until 1817, after 1756 the ships of 50 guns and below were considered too weak to stand in...

 launched in 1691 and broken up in 1728. was a 60-gun fourth-rate launched in 1732 and broken up 1769. was a 50-gun fourth-rate launched in 1774. She was reduced to harbour service in 1809, sank at her moorings in 1824 and was raised and broken up in 1825.

• HMS Centurion
  HMS Clarence (1812)
  HMS Clarence was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 11 April 1812 at Turnchapel.In 1826 Clarence was re-rated as a fourth rate, and was broken up in 1828....
  
   was a 74-gun third-rate
  Third-rate
  In the British Royal Navy, a third rate was a ship of the line which from the 1720s mounted between 64 and 80 guns, typically built with two gun decks . Years of experience proved that the third rate ships embodied the best compromise between sailing ability , firepower, and cost...
  
   launched in 1812 as . She was renamed HMS Centurion in 1826 and was broken up in 1828. was an 80-gun third-rate launched in 1844. She was converted to screw propulsion in 1855, and sold in 1870. was a Centurion-class
  Centurion class battleship
  The Centurion class battleships were second-class pre-dreadnought battleships of the Royal Navy designed for service on distant stations.-Description:...
  
   battleship
  Battleship
  A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...
  
   launched in 1892 and sold in 1910. was a King George V-class
  King George V class battleship (1911)
  The King George V class battleships were a series of four Royal Navy super-dreadnought battleships built just prior to and serving in the First World War.The King George V class immediately followed the Orion class upon which they were based....
  
   battleship
  Battleship
  A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...
  
   launched in 1911. She was converted to a target ship
  Target ship
  A target ship is a vessel — typically an obsolete or captured warship — used for naval gunnery practice or for weapons testing.-Rationale:Sinking redundant warships is an effective way of testing new weapons and warships in as realistic a manner as possible. Whilst practice torpedoes are fired...
  
   in 1926, rated as an escort ship in 1940, and was sunk off Arromanches as a breakwater
  Breakwater (structure)
  Breakwaters are structures constructed on coasts as part of coastal defence or to protect an anchorage from the effects of weather and longshore drift.-Purposes of breakwaters:...
  
   in 1944.
• HMS Centurion was to have been a 9,000 ton cruiser
  Cruiser
  A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...
  
  , planned in 1945, but cancelled in 1946.

Shore establishment was the central drafting depot established at Haslemere

Haslemere

Haslemere is a town in Surrey, England, close to the border with both Hampshire and West Sussex. The major road between London and Portsmouth, the A3, lies to the west, and a branch of the River Wey to the south. Haslemere is approximately south-west of Guildford.Haslemere is surrounded by hills,...

 in 1956, commissioned in 1957 and named in 1964. The base moved to Gosport

Gosport

Gosport is a town, district and borough situated on the south coast of England, within the county of Hampshire. It has approximately 80,000 permanent residents with a further 5,000-10,000 during the summer months...

, becoming a drafting depot and a pay and accounting centre, in 1970. It was paid off in 1994, becoming Centurion building, a tender to , mainly responsible for personnel and Human Resources

Human resources

Human resources is a term used to describe the individuals who make up the workforce of an organization, although it is also applied in labor economics to, for example, business sectors or even whole nations...

functions.