HONOURABLE COMPANY OF MASTER MARINERS - Key Persons
Contact me for all membership enquires, website usage and for matters relating to ship management.
I joined the Honourable Company in 2013 encouraged by Captain Rob Booth CMMar who was shortly to be come a Warden and eventually Master in 2017. I was elected Senior Warden in 2022 and on the 1st May 2023, became The Master of the Company.
I joined the Education & Training and Technical Committees in 2015, progressed to be a Liveryman and became a Court Assistant in 2016 and was elected as Warden in 2019, I am an Associate Fellow of the Nautical Institute and also act as mentor to an associate recently qualified as OOW.
At sea 1970 - 1988 with a major tanker company and latterly with various management agencies, I spent almost 25 years as a freelance consultant and surveyor in the offshore oil & gas industries and presently work as Marine Manager for an expanding marine and engineering consultancy in London, largely engaged in the renewable energy sector.
Born on Tyneside I lived for many years in Yorkshire but am now happily settled in Suffolk with my wife Val, I am involved with our local church and also like to turn my hand to practical projects large and small, recently construction of a kit car and latterly smaller scale modelling along with an interest in various aspects of nautical and aviation history.
Job Titles:
- the Immediate past Master
I joined the HCMM in January 2013 as a Freeman, becoming a Liveryman in September 2014, elected Warden in April 2018, Master in 2022, and in 2023 I became The Immediate Past Master.
I have been a standing member for over 3 years of the Education & Training Committee and also the Professional & Technical Committee. HCMM Ambassador to London Southern District Sea Cadets and an HCMM ships guide since early 2015. For the Wellington Trust I volunteer as a Master Mariner Instructor & Exhibition Supervisor.
I served 10 years at sea as a Deck Officer with BP Tanker Co. and obtained my FG Masters Certificate aged 27. I then got promoted Chief Officer two weeks after my Masters Certificate. Also, while with BP, I trained as a pump Engineer. Came ashore to rescue a distant relatives Industrial Rubber Company which was trading insolvent. 18 months after joining, I was promoted to Sales Director and then within four years, the Company was back in profit. Nine years later promoted to MD and served 25 years. I eventually sold the Company with a Turnover of £2.4 million.
I started working for the Honourable Company in January 2019 as the new Chartered Master Mariner Registrar.
I became a member in February 2019, and in August 2020, I had the great honour of being appointed the new Learned Clerk to the Company. Before arriving at HCMM, I had a broad and exciting scope of experiences. After Sixth Form, I went into the Crown Prosecution Service, Gloucestershire, as a caseworker in the Trials Unit. In 2019 I enrolled at Swansea University, reading history. During university, I got accepted into the University Royal Naval Unit, Wales, later becoming the Senior Midshipman of Wales. I deployed four times with HMS Express and experienced life and service in the Royal Navy. After graduating with a 2:1 Honours degree, I became a qualified teacher of history, government & politics and religious education. After two years in Gloucester, I moved to Central London, where I taught at a catholic school in East London and would later become head of Chaplaincy, focusing on Catholic Life.
Throughout my adult life, I have been a Cadet Force Adult Volunteer (CFAV), gaining my commission as a Royal Naval Reserve Officer in the Sea Cadet Corps. My passions and interests are education, history and politics, the military and the maritime industry. My whole life has been striving to improve the lives of those around me.
I was invited to join by Commodore Tony Barrett when he was Master - whatever year that was in the early nineties! I was delighted to accept as my background has been almost totally with the maritime world.
I first joined the Royal Navy in 1951 as a communicator serving for nearly ten years in COMINT. I left to train for Ordination at Oxford returning to the RN in 1965. Apart from a short break in the RNR I served until being retired on age in 1992. My last full appointment was being seconded to the RFAs for three years where I learnt the Merchant Navy way of life!
On leaving the RN I was appointed as Senior Chaplain at the Missions to Seamen in Southampton from 1993 until 1999 when I reached retirement age. In retirement I became firstly Chaplain and then Master of The Hospital of St Cross and Almshouse of Noble Poverty in Winchester (a medieval foundation for housing 24 poor and derelict men).