Career
Ordered:
Laid down:	9 October 1924
Launched:	11 March 1926
Commissioned:	8 May 1928
Fate:	Sunk
General Characteristics
Displacement:	9750 tons
Length:
Beam:
Draught:	16.4 ft (5.0 m)
Propulsion:
Speed:
Range:
Complement:
Armament:
Aircraft:

HMS Cornwall (56) was a 9,750-ton County-class heavy cruiser of the Royal Navy.

She was laid down at Devonport on 9 October 1924, launched on 11 March 1926, and commissioned on 8 May 1928.

Cornwall saw service on the China Station, and was reconstructed from 1935–1939, being completed just before the outbreak of World War II. She was then transferred to the East Indies Fleet. In October 1939, she took part in the search for the "pocket battleship" Admiral Graf Spee. In November 1939, Cornwall was re-allocated to the South Atlantic Command, but returned to Britain with a convoy in July 1940. In early August 1940, she left Britain once again operating off West Africa to support the Dakar operation and the Free French occupation of Duala in Senegal. Based in Simonstown, South Africa from December 1940, she escorted numerous convoys in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

Cornwall also undertook searches for armed merchant cruisers that presented a hazard to Allied convoys. On 8 May 1941, she found and sank the German raider ship Pinguin north of the Seychelles. About 200 Allied prisoners of war were killed in the sinking along with 332 of the German crew. Cornwall was able to rescue 60 crew and 22 prisoners.

In March 1942, she joined the Eastern Fleet, operating in the Ceylon area. In early April, Cornwall and her sister ship Dorsetshire were detached from the fleet to escort the aircraft carrier Hermes to Trincomalee on Ceylon for repairs. On 5 April 1942, the two cruisers were sighted by Japanese aircraft about 200 miles (320 km) southwest of Ceylon. A short while later, 50 Japanese dive bombers completely overwhelmed and sank both ships. Of Cornwall's 650 crew, 190 were lost. The survivors were picked up by the hospital ship Vita. (See Indian Ocean raid.)

See HMS Cornwall for other ships of this name.