The UK Royal Navy (RN) whipped up some degree of controversy on 26 January 2025 when the service announced via its X account that its seventh Astute-class nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN) would be renamed Achilles instead of Agincourt.
“The 7th Astute-class submarine is to be named HMS Achilles, as approved by The King,” the RN posted. “The name is appropriate in light of the 80th anniversaries this year of VE and VJ Day.”
The RN name change request, which was approved by the Labour government, was immediately seen by former Conservative defence secretaries and naval leaders as an excess of political correctness in attempting to avoid offending the French. The name Agincourt refers to the 1415 English victory over the French during the Hundred Years’ War, while this year will see the Second World War allies and European nations commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe on 8 May 1945, which came to be known as Victory in Europe Day (VE Day). The final end of the war came on 15 August 1945, with what became known as Victory over Japan Day (VJ Day).
Former Conservative defence secretaries Grant Shapps and Sir Gavin Williamson both reacted angrily to the name change, while retired RN rear admiral Chris Parry told Times Radio that it was “craven political correctness and ideology gone mad” that “seeks to erase our history”, adding, “I don’t see the French renaming the Gare d’Austerlitz to avoid upsetting the Germans, and I’m now concerned that we might lose Waterloo and Trafalgar Square”.
The Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815 saw an allied European army defeat the French Grande Armée of Napoleon, while the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805 saw the RN defeat a combined French and Spanish fleet. At the Battle of Austerlitz on 2 December 1805 Napoleon’s Grande Armée defeated the combined imperial armies of Austria and Russia.
It was perhaps somewhat unfortunate that London’s Waterloo train station was the terminal at which the Eurostar trains from France arrived from 1994 until 2007, when the Eurostar terminal was moved to St Pancras, while London’s Trafalgar Square is the location of the monument that celebrates RN Vice Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson’s 1805 naval victory.
The RN noted of the announced name change to Achilles that “six ships have previously borne the name, earning six battle honours, including the River Plate and Okinawa”, referring to the 13 December 1939 naval action that ultimately led to the scuttling of the German heavy cruiser Admiral Graff Spee and the April to June 1945 campaign that captured the island of Okinawa from the Japanese.
In terms of most recent battle honours, the name change to Achilles thus does make some sense. While five previous RN warships have taken the name Agincourt, the most recent one to have done so was the Battle-class destroyer HMS Agincourt (D86), which was launched on 29 January 1945 but not commissioned until two years after the Second World War had ended, on 25 June 1947. By the time the ship was relegated to the RN’s operational reserve in 1966, it really had no battle honours to speak of.
The previous HMS Achilles (F12), a Leander-class frigate that entered service in July 1970, also had an unremarkable service life, with the most noticeable event being a collision with the Greek tanker Olympic Alliance in the Dover Strait on 12 November 1975 that caused extensive damage to the frigate’s bow.
Currently under construction, the future Astute-class SNN that will be named HMS Achilles (S125) is the seventh and final submarine in its class. The boat was laid down on 14 May 2018 and is expected to enter RN service in late 2026.
