Caledon, pennant D 53, was a Caledon-class light cruiser ordered from Cammell Laird at Birkenhead on 8 December 1915. She was laid down on 17 March 1916, yard number 828, and launched on 25 November 1916. Mason's chronology says the build was completed on 7 March 1917. Uboat.net gives the commissioning date as 6 March 1917. The completion date is the one used.
Acting Captain Henry John Haynes had her from 29 April 1941. On 26 March 1942 she joined the 5th Cruiser Squadron, Eastern Fleet, based at Trincomalee. On 31 March she was allocated to Force B with the battleships Ramillies, Royal Sovereign and Revenge, the carrier Hermes, the cruiser Dragon, the Dutch cruiser Van Heemskerck and eight destroyers. Mason says she was deployed in support of Force A during the search for a Japanese force reported on passage to Ceylon. On 4 April she supported Force A in a further sweep. On 9 April she transferred with the Force B ships to Kilindini, because of the Japanese air threat to Ceylon. She stayed on Indian Ocean trade defence and interception patrol through May and June. In July 1942 she took passage to Britain, and in August she paid off into dockyard control for a refit and conversion to an anti-aircraft cruiser. She was taken in hand at Chatham on 14 September 1942. Haynes left about September 1942.
Uboat.net dates the anti-aircraft conversion from 14 September 1942 to 7 December 1943, and it gives the rebuilt armament as six 4-inch guns in three twin mountings, four 40 mm guns in two twin mountings, and twelve 20 mm guns in six twin mountings. Lieutenant-Commander Eric Hart Dyke had her from 29 July 1943 until 10 December 1943, at the end of that refit. Captain Reginald Frederick Nichols took her on 10 December 1943. Unithistories.com ends him on 11 November 1944. Uboat.net ends him on 21 November 1944, the day it starts John Ronald Stewart Brown. The command line uses 11 November.
Mason has her working up at Scapa Flow in January 1944 and then in the Mediterranean. On 9 May she joined a United States task group west of Gibraltar to escort convoy UGS40. On 11 May, off Cape Bengut, she was under attack by 62 Ju 88 aircraft and shot down ten of them. In July she was nominated for the landings in the south of France. On 15 August she was in Task Group 88.2 with Colombo, giving anti-aircraft cover to escort carriers during Operation Dragoon. In October she went to the Aegean to support the reoccupation of islands. In December she bombarded ELAS positions near Piraeus and Salamis with the escort destroyer Easton, the French corvette La Malouine, and the Greek ships Sakhtouris and Navarinon, and she was released from that military support on 12 December. Brown had her from 21 November 1944 until 27 March 1945, so the December bombardments fall in his command. The ten days between 11 and 21 November are not assigned.
In January 1945 she was still in Greek waters and was nominated for withdrawal. In February she came home. Mason says she paid off in March and was laid up at Falmouth in April. Uboat.net says she was disarmed at Chatham in April 1945 and paid off into reserve at Falmouth on 29 April 1945. Dyke had her again, as an acting commander, from 27 March to 6 April 1945. Acting Lieutenant-Commander James Robert Freeman, Royal Naval Reserve, had her from 6 April until 29 April 1945. After the war she was used for target trials, placed on the disposal list, sold to BISCO on 22 January 1948, and arrived at Dover for breaking up on 14 February 1948. She was not sunk.
A note on sources. The Eastern Fleet dates, Force B, Cape Bengut, Dragoon, the Greek bombardments and the sale follow Geoffrey Mason's naval-history.net chronology, revised in 2004 and saved as a digitized copy. The sale sentence says she arrived at Dover on 14 February, in the paragraph that begins with the sale of 22 January 1948. Uboat.net gives the arrival as 14 February 1948 at Dover Industries and the paying-off as 29 April 1945, which is the date used. It commissions her on 6 March 1917, one day before Mason's completion. Nichols's end date is unithistories.com, anchor Nichols_RF, 11 November 1944. The other command dates are the uboat.net list. Haynes's officer page gives him the DSO on 15 August 1941. The ship's commanding-officer line prints DSC only.