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

• HMS Heron (1804), an 18-gun 340-ton sloop purchased June 1804 (and previously named Jason). Renamed HMS Volcano in 1810 following conversion to a bomb vessel. Sold on 28 August 1816.
• HMS Heron (1812), 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.
• HMS Heron (1847), 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.
• HMS Heron (1860), a wooden screw Albacore-class gunboat launched at Miller's Shipyard, Liverpool on 5 July 1860 and broken up in Jamaica in 1881.
• HMS Heron (1897), an 85-ton river gunboat equipped with two 2-pounder guns and constructed at Yarrow. Transferred to the Nigerian Government on 1 January 1899.
• HMS 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.
• HMS Heron was assigned to a 1,200-ton sloop, but the vessel had been renamed HMS Auckland by the time of her launch in 1938.
• HMS Heron II was a short-term resident at RNAS Haldon before moving to RNAS Charlton Horethorne during World War II. It closed in 1948.
• HMS Heron (shore establishment) is the designation currently given to RNAS Yeovilton in Somerset, England

References

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.