Several ships of the Royal Navy has been named HMS Heron after the wading bird.

• Heron, an 18 gun 340 ton sloop purchased June 1804 (and previosly named Jason). Renamed HMS Volcano in 1810 following conversion to a bomb vessel. Sold on 28 August 1816.
• Heron, a Cruizer class brig-sloop originally to have been called HMS Rattlesnake and launched at Upnor, Kent on 22 October 1812, and broken up in March 1831.
• Heron, a 482 ton 16 gun brig launched at Chatham Dockyard on 27 September 1847 and lost at sea off West Africa on 9 May 1859.
• Heron, a wooden screw Albacore-class gunboat launched at Miller's Shipyard, Liverpool on 5 July 1860 and broken up in Jamaica in 1881.
• Heron, an 85 ton river gunboat equipped with two 2-pounder guns and constructed at Yarrow. Transferred to the Nigerian Government on 1 January 1899.
• Heron was a 100 ton War Department tender originally called Empress. Following her transfer to the Royal Navy in 1906 she was renamed Heron. Sold in September 1923.
• Heron was assigned to a 1,200 sloop, but the vessel had been renamed HMS Auckland by the time of her launch in 1938.
• The current Heron is the Royal Navy Air Station at Yeovilton in Somerset, England

References

• Colledge, J. J. and Warlow, Ben (2006). Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy, Rev. ed., London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475. 

This article includes a list of ships with the same or similar names. If an internal link for a specific ship referred you to this page, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended ship article, if one exists.