HMS 'Illustrious' in use as a troop ship, 23 November 1951

Photograph by Corporal Albany Wiseman, The Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment, 1951.

'Illustrious' was commissioned in 1940. In the same year she became the first aircraft carrier to strike against an enemy fleet during the Taranto operation. After the Second World War War she was used as a troopship, her enormous hangars providing space for thousands of soldiers. She remained in service until 1954. Wiseman took this photograph whilst on National Service in Egypt between 1950 and 1952.