WAR binds people together in extraordinary ways.

No-one would expect – or dare ask – the people of Kirklees to stump up the cost of a helicopter or armoured car for use in Afghanistan.

Nor would one expect the soldiers who used the equipment to raise money to send Huddersfield’s poorer children to pantomimes, fish and chip teas, and holidays in Colwyn Bay.

Yet this was the camaraderie that existed during World War II. There was a perfect example of it in Huddersfield.

In 1939 the War Office asked the people of many towns, including Huddersfield, to do their bit for the war effort by buying bonds. The money was used to finance a massive programme of building armaments to fend off the German threat.

Under government guidance, Huddersfield adopted the 8,000-ton Crown Colony class cruiser HMS Gambia.

Gambia was ‘laid down’ – a term for the shipyard positioning of the keel, the first point of construction – in July, 1939 and launched from Swan Hunter’s Yard at Wallsend in November 1940.

She was commissioned in February, 1942.

That year she saw action at the Battle of Madagascar before returning to Britain. On the way home, the ship called into the (then) British colony of Gambia, where chiefs in full regalia led thousands of people on board for a visit.

The ship was transferred to the Royal New Zealand Navy in 1943, taking part in operations against the Japanese off the coasts of Taiwan and Okinawa.

HMS Gambia took part in the bombardment of ironworks in the Japanese city of Kamaishi on August 9, 1945, just days before the war ended.

On its way back, the ship was attacked by a Japanese plane, which was shot down.

This is believed to be the last time that a Royal Navy ship fired on enemy aircraft during the Second World War.

HMS Gambia was also present at the signing of the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945.

The ship returned to the Royal Navy in 1946 and served in the Mediterranean and the South Atlantic before it was mothballed in Portsmouth in 1960.

Huddersfield Sea Cadets were given two mementoes from the ship at the time: an oak plaque which had been presented to the ship by the people of Gambia six years earlier and a silver cup, which had been a gift from Huddersfield Borough Council, and the occasion was captured in our picture.

One beneficiary of the crew’s reciprocal generosity was Stephen Carter, who was a resident of the Huddersfield Borough’s childrens homes from 1951 to 1961.

“We were lucky enough to get extra treats thanks to the crew of HMS Gambia,” he said.

“They would hold fundraising events so that we could go on panto trips or extra holidays to the seaside – Colwyn Bay was one such extra holiday.

“We had the chance to visit the ship when it docked at Hull, I think in the early to mid-1950s. We travelled by train and had a fish and chip meal before running riot round the ship. I bet the crew were glad when we had gone home.”

Stephen would love to hear from anyone who remembers the trips to Colwyn Bay and Hull.

In December, 1968, the retired ship was towed from Portsmouth to the Scottish town of Inverkeithing, where she was broken up. There has not been another HMS Gambia.