Sultan hosts successful 2026 Families Day occasion
HMS SULTAN brought together Royal Navy personnel, civil servants, base contractors and their loved ones for a brilliant afternoon as the training establishment held its annual ‘Families Day’ recently; which offered fun, entertainment and activities as they carried on the seventieth anniversary celebrations in style.
Guests were able to enjoy birds of prey, a petting zoo, inflatable axe throwing, a variety of bouncy castles and inflatable attractions throughout the afternoon. Didi cars with track and the spectacular Tigers Motorcycle Display Team were also enjoyed by many people, as were other activities on offer. This included steam waggon rides, live music, kids’ circus skills, face painting, balloon animals, glitter tattoos and a roaming magician; which were fuelled by food, drinks and ice cream.
The HMS Sultan Families Day is an annual event which brings together personnel from across the establishment and their invited guests. Thanks to the generous support of sponsors and charities, this year’s event was free for all attendees and offered the chance to learn about the wider support available to them from service charities / organisations.
Commanding Officer of HMS Sultan, Captain Mark Hamilton, said: “Today’s Families Day perfectly captures what makes HMS Sultan so special, our people and the incredible support of their families. This year is particularly poignant, as we 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 ships and submarines at sea, to the Air Engineering and Survival Equipment technicians on whom our people’s lives depend.”
“Events like this remind us that behind every skilled engineer and technician we train here is a family who supports their journey. Their sacrifice and understanding enables our personnel to focus on becoming the innovative, professional engineers our Royal Navy needs. 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.
He concluded: “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. I’m immensely grateful for the continued support of our families, sponsors and charities, and delighted we can celebrate this milestone together today.”
HMS Sultan was commissioned on 1 June 1956 just one day after HMS Siskin’s closure and has grown from its origins as the Mechanical Training Course into one of Defence’s most significant engineering training establishments. Today, HMS Sultan is home to the Marine Engineering Training Group (METG) and the Royal Naval Air Engineering and Survival Equipment School (RNAESS); who together deliver over 320 courses to more than 7,700 trainees annually from across the UK Armed Forces, NATO and international partners. These include Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, Saudi Arabia and Brazil.
In addition to its training mission, HMS Sultan hosts the Admiralty Interview Board, Defence Business Services, the Nuclear Faculty of the Royal Navy, Captain Naval Recruiting teams and the AE Career Management Team. Readers can see more information about the Gosport-based training establishment and its seventy years of history by clicking on this link.
PICTURED BY LEADING PHOTOGRAPHER DAMIEN BYE: Kids’ circus skills give younger visitors the chance to try something new during Families Day, which is held every year at HMS Sultan.
