Sultan celebrate seventy years with royal visit
HMS SULTAN marked its seventieth anniversary recently as they hosted HRH The Princess Royal to the Gosport-based training establishment; which was commissioned back in June 1956 and has since grown from its origins as the Mechanical Training Course into one of Defence’s most significant engineering training establishments.
Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal paid a special visit as Guest of Honour at the establishment’s 70th Anniversary Ceremonial Divisions; an occasion that helped to mark seven decades of the Royal Navy’s foremost centre of professional engineering.
In addition to taking the salute from officers and ratings on parade, HRH The Princess Royal presented awards and prizes recognising outstanding academic achievement, engineering excellence and exemplary service.
Escorted by Captain Mark Hamilton, the Commanding Officer of HMS Sultan, Her Royal Highness inspected the Guard of Honour before reviewing HM Royal Marines Band Lympstone; who provided the musical accompaniment throughout the event.
Sultan is home to the Marine Engineering Training Group, the Royal Naval Air Engineering and Survival Equipment School, and the Nuclear Department, together delivering over 320 courses to more than 7,700 trainees from across the UK Armed Forces, NATO and international partners every year.
Captain Mark Hamilton said: “It was our very great honour to welcome Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal to Sultan today, and to mark seventy years of this extraordinary establishment. The expertise trained here spans the full breadth of naval engineering, from the Marine Engineers who keep our fleet at sea, to the Air Engineering and Survival Equipment technicians on whom our people’s lives depend.”
He continued to say: “As we look ahead, we are focused on transforming how we deliver that training, expanding our use of simulated and emulated environments and growing our work with NATO allies and partner nations. Agility will be central to how we operate in the years ahead, as the Naval Service becomes more complex and more demanding. And as new platforms arrive under a hybrid Navy, Sultan will remain what it has always been, the engineering heartbeat of the Naval Service, powering naval engineering for generations to come.”
Lieutenant Commander Bart Allen-West was presented with a Long Service & Good Conduct Second Bar by Her Royal Highness during the ceremony. He said: “It is a massive honour to receive this award from Her Royal Highness and a privilege to be part of HMS Sultan’s 70th birthday celebrations. Having joined the Royal Navy in 1990, this medal is recognition not only of my long service and good conduct, but also of the sacrifice and unwavering support of my family throughout my career.”
Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal presented the Wider Service Medal to three individuals: Engineering Technician (Marine Engineer) Gugulethu Bhebe, Engineering Technician (Marine Engineer) Sophie Marriott and Engineering Technician (Marine Engineer) Henry Relph. The Silver Valedictory Certificate was presented to Petty Officer Raymond Hamley, whilst the Long Service & Good Conduct Second Bar was awarded to Lieutenant Commander Bart Allen-West.
PICTURED: Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal continued her longstanding relationship with HMS Sultan as she visited the base for its seventieth anniversary; this latest visit being her fifth since 1992.
