I am content with what I have achieved in my career, and the opportunities I have had throughout my life. I feel, much of this was a result of the encouragement, and discipline, given to me in the early days, during my time at Watson’s.
In 1953, as a nervous 7-year-old, wearing new short trousers and a maroon blazer at least three sizes too big for me, I sat in Miss Anderson's Class D in George Watson's Prep School wondering what on Earth lay before me. Would I be successful at anything or just “get by”? I was not a ‘high-flyer’ as this class was the lower of the two streams.
Then in 1955, my younger brother, at the same school, and I had to leave Watson’s for two years as our father, a Naval Officer was posted to New Zealand. Mr Rattray, the then head of the Junior School, said we would be able to rejoin our classes when we returned, and the experience of living abroad would be beneficial to our education. This was true, it was a great experience.
On our return, as our father continued to be posted to various different locations, to give my brother and myself a settled education it was decided we should become boarders at Watsons, in a large house, Atholl Lodge, in Spylaw road, which had been converted into a school ‘Boarding House’, with dormitories and common room etc.
It was privately run at that time by Miss Rirchie, but Watson’s took it over in 1958 and renamed it Meadow's House. While we were there, the housemasters were first Mr O MacLauchlin and a few years later Mr E Walker took over. Living in that 'Bug Hut', as the school boarding houses were affectionately known, was something I am glad I lived through, for my senior school years. It certainly laid the foundation for a settled education which we could not have had, if we had to follow our father and his Naval postings. The discipline of ‘Prep’ for two hours every evening was fundamental to my later academic studies.
My school career progressed well and for the most part enjoyably, although French and I came to an understanding that it would never be my favourite subject, one teacher, in particular, scared me, no names, no pack drill, but my brother assures me this gentleman had a heart of gold and was a 'good chap', I remain unconvinced...
My latter form Masters were Mr Johnson and Dr Meek, both from the Chemistry department and they steered me through the new, at that time, ‘O’ Grades, and then Highers. I gained 8 O’s and 5 Highers, which was a relief at the time.
Like many pupils then, I had been very active in the school Combined Cadet Force, with an aim to follow in my father’s footsteps as a Naval Officer. I was awarded the ‘Crawford Cup’ for being the best cadet one year, in the Naval Section.
One thing in my education, for which I am grateful to Watson’s, was the appreciation of poetry. Mr George Moore supervised my studies for Higher English. He was an exceptional teacher and opened my mind to the pleasures of reading Keats, for example. But especially, it was the poems of Robert Burns that I enjoyed. So much so that when I went to sea for the first time, my mother gave me a copy of the Complete Works of Burns which has been with me ever since. I still have the school poetry textbook – very well thumbed.
My exam success and passing the rigorous interview procedure ensured my entry to the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, where among other things I became fitter than I had ever been before… My mother believed that I was ‘half starved’ when I returned home on leave, as I was so thin!
The training at Dartmouth was detailed and comprehensive in the technical side of running a ship and the crew, and in the Art of Leadership which stood me in good stead for the years ahead.
Although I had joined the Navy to be an Engineering Officer, the training at the College was comprehensive, covering everything any officer may need to know, including in my case using a sextant to fix a ship's position using the stars. After two terms in the college, our training included working as an “ordinary rating” on HMS Torquay, for one term, which sailed to Canada.
In 1965 I graduated from Dartmouth as a ‘Midshipman’, with a lot still to learn, and to put into practice what I had learned. The next year was spent at sea.
I was posted to HMS Eagle, a very large, for the time, ‘Fleet’ Aircraft Carrier. It was bound for the Far East, Singapore and Japan. Eagle sailed from Plymouth and visited Malta before passing through the Suez Canal. Then a short visit to Aden in the Red Sea, before reaching Singapore.
There was considerable tension between Malaysia (UK-supported) and Indonesia (Soviet-supported) at that time (known as Operation 'Confrontation') and as we passed through the Malacca Straits, approaching the island, we were at full Action Stations.
Eagle was the senior ship in harbour and was responsible for providing the Guard Boat to protect the other ships. There was a real threat of frogmen planting mines and bombs, by swimming from the Indonesian mainland.
The duty of commanding the boat was given to the Midshipmen! So I often found myself in charge of the 70-foot diesel-powered motorboat at night, crewed by 20 sailors, all of us armed with machine guns, searching through the reed beds, boarding suspicious sampans, looking for terrorists. Each shift lasted eight hours. My ‘First Command’ at the age of 19!
Then Rhodesia declared UDI (illegal independence) from the UK, and Eagle was diverted back to blockade their oil supplies, by patrolling in the Indian Ocean off the East African coast.
Time off for the crew was spent at Mombassa. A high point was New Year’s Eve of 1966. There was a beach club at Nyalli near Mombassa owned by a Scot. (Possibly even a Watsonian?).
On the stroke of Midnight, a Piper in the full ‘kilty’ dress marched onto the dance floor and piped in the new year.
There was not a dry eye in the place, as we all thought of our families far away.
Part of Naval duties abroad is to entertain the locals (‘Showing the Flag’) by holding and hosting formal and informal get-togethers, on board. Eagle held such events in Mombassa. I ended up escorting a girl from Edinburgh (very small world!) who was spending a gap year with a chum, touring Africa. I remember us standing on the quarterdeck, arm-in-arm, glasses in hand watching the stunning African sun setting in the west; and thinking: “I’m getting paid for this!”
After six months of almost constant sea-time, I was then appointed to HMS Walkerton, to gain ‘small-ship’ experience. Walkerton was the senior ship of the 7th Minesweeping Squadron based at Malta. I learned a lot as on these small ships everyone had to ‘pull their weight’. I quickly gained my Watch-keeping qualifications as an ‘Officer of the Watch, at Sea and in Harbour’.
I was then able to fulfil my role as one of the crew and was frequently the Officer of the Day – totally in charge of the ship and its crew while in harbour. At sea, I stood my four-hour watches alone on the bridge, in charge of routine operations and all navigation.
My specific function on board was as the Officer of the Foc'sle, in charge of the capstan, anchors and berthing ropes, with a small team of sailors. And I was still in my teens, looking back on it, was that really me?
Walkerton took part in two huge NATO ‘war games exercises’, off the South of France where ‘reinforcements were landed to support the West from Soviet incursion’; and we also visited several ports in Italy, Greece and France. Lots of time at sea – excellent training.
In the middle of 1966, I was summoned to attend my ‘Fleet Board for Lieutenant’ on board HMS Galatea, the flagship of the Fleet based in Malta. This was the traditional oral exam, which even Nelson had endured, conducted by very senior officers, and which lasted a full day. I passed.
Academic training followed. I took ‘unpaid leave’ to gain a BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Heriot-Watt University, which I passed in the middle of 1971.
Re-joining the Navy I was promoted to Lieutenant, and undertook the rigorous Submarine Qualification training at HMS Dolphin, at Gosport which included an escape ascent from 100 feet in the ‘Escape Tank’. During my training I served on the diesel-electric submarines HMS Grampus, and HMS Porpoise, and was awarded my ‘Dolphins’, the insignia only given to submariners, in November 1972.
In November 1972, I was appointed to HMS Walrus as the head of the Weapons/ Electrical Department as an Engineer Officer (the WEO). On my first patrol, early in 1973 – the captain decided to check that the vessel was safe at full diving depth. The crew went to ‘Diving Stations’ as a precaution. My station was in the Motor Room – in the far rear of the submarine – which held all the switchboards and electrical distribution systems, as well as the main motors driving the shafts. Down we went and all seemed well. Suddenly a spray of water shot up from under my feet, sprayed across the switchboards and down the opposite side of the hull. I raised the alarm and set the motors to full speed to drive us to the surface as fast as possible. We surfaced about 30 seconds later (a very LONG 30 seconds!), having flooded my equipment with 300 gallons of seawater.
There was a lot of damage to be fixed and it was a ‘challenge’. But a week later I had most of the repairs done and we arrived back in port for the remainder to be fixed. I had earned my spurs!
After nine months of exciting operations of the ‘cold war’, Walrus was sent to Rosyth for an overdue refit – which lasted two years. I was nominated as the ‘locum’ WEO in case of someone being unfit for sea. Once I was sent to HMS Narwhal as such, to supervise the ‘testing’ of four War Stock torpedoes, by firing them at a cliff in Norway. It was a success and I wondered if I was the only WEO who had fired ‘real live weapons’ since the war!
As a result of my work on Walrus, I was granted Chartered Engineer (‘C Eng’) status by the Institute of Electrical Engineers. This was a huge step in my professional career.
Nuclear submarines were then the ‘capital ships’ in the fleet. I was then selected for nuclear training in order to serve on one. In January 1976 I joined RNC Greenwich for the Nuclear Diploma Course lasting two terms, followed by one term at the Naval Reactor Test Establishment at Vulcan, in Thurso for practical experience of running a naval reactor.
I passed the course, and joined HMS Churchill in November 1976 based at Faslane, on the Clyde for the ‘at sea’ qualification which took three months of intense work – learning all there was to know about the reactor and propulsion systems; tracing systems and operating the equipment.
I passed the oral ‘Fleet Board’ examination and gained my Nuclear Operating Licence: category ‘A – 1’, in March 1977 while on passage to Barbados.
I was then granted a few weeks leave and flew home from Rio de Janeiro. The first time at home for some months.
I served on Churchill until 1980, an unusually long appointment, but gained early promotion to Lt Commander in 1978 when appointed as the Weapons Engineer Officer. My time on board included attending the Fleet Review off Spithead in 1977; ‘cold war’ operations; and a long docking at Devonport. Finally, Churchill undertook an unsupported deployment to San Diego in California lasting nine months, to conduct the acceptance trials of the new ‘Harpoon’ anti-ship missile. We launched 12 of which were all successful. On the voyage home we suffered a major fault with the steam systems and in mid-Atlantic had to conduct a novel repair (a job usually done in harbour!) which took over a day.
In 1980 my captain recommended that I should change my specific engineering specialisation from ‘Weapons’ to ‘Marine’ engineering. I agreed and this was accepted by the Admiralty.
On return to Faslane in March 1980, I left Churchill and was appointed as the Base (Deputy) Electrical Officer of HMS Neptune, at the Clyde Submarine Base, Faslane. This involved managing all the afloat support activities to the submarines at the Base. I was also one of the two specially nominated officers who vetted any repair work on the Nuclear Plants of the submarines.
The Falklands War took place during this period, which tested the ability of the Base to support the submarine fleet.
Unfortunately, I suffered an accident onboard a vessel and underwent a Spinal Fusion operation to address broken vertebrae.
By this time I was a senior Lt Commander and having had a number of successful ‘Charge Jobs at Sea’, I was not expecting to be given another one. However, the Admiralty had other ideas! They invited me to go back to sea, but this time as a Marine Engineer Officer. I accepted and was appointed in 1983 to HMS Revenge, which had just finished sea acceptance trials following a long refit at Rosyth.
Revenge was one of the UK’s nuclear deterrent force armed with the Polaris missile system. I was now a ‘well-experienced’ engineer and found this appointment to be the most enjoyable, and most successful of my career. I undertook 5 patrols, each lasting about 10 weeks, and dived the whole time.
I left Revenge at the end of 1986 and joined the Port Admiral’s staff at Rosyth in January 1987 as an Assistant Chief Staff Officer (Engineering) with special responsibility for Submarines Refitting at the dockyard; this duty also included being the Naval Submarine representative at the dockyard. I found this appointment somewhat ‘low-key’ when compared to the duties of ‘driving’ a reactor plant on a nuclear ‘bomber’ submarine! But it was interesting for all that.
Civilian management was imposed on the dockyard at this time and I was asked by Babcock-Thorn Ltd, then running the site, to leave the navy and become a project manager with them.
I left the Navy in April 1988 and began a new career as a civilian. I undertook many tasks at the dockyard. One of which was to write the specification for the Decommissioning, de-fuel, and Lay-up of a nuclear submarine. The first of which was Churchill, which I Project Managed.
My final task was as the Emergency Planning Manager with the responsibility for gaining a Nuclear Operating Licence from the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, with successful demonstrations of the emergency arrangements at the site. The NII site inspector was satisfied, the licence was awarded.
Babcock had a commitment to the professional development of the staff and a number of us were offered the chance to study for the Master of Business degree at Strathclyde Graduate Business School, at the company’s expense. It was ‘part-time’ study undertaken while still doing our jobs and lasted three years. At the graduation, I was approached by the Professor supervising our work, and she invited me to join her team, as a researcher to obtain a Doctorate. I took her offer and subsequently graduated as a Doctor of Business some years later.
Nuclear work at Rosyth was in decline, and I was warned that I ought to look for a new job. However, in 2000 the HSE (NII) invited me to apply to become a Nuclear Site Inspector. I was offered an interview just after I was made redundant from Babcock’s!
My interview was successful, and I joined the NII in August 2000 and moved to Liverpool. While working for the HSE I regulated the Naval nuclear sites, and also assessed the emergency arrangements for public safety, as provided by Local Authorities’ emergency plans, ensuring that they were sufficient to address a nuclear emergency.
In 2008 I retired from the NII and became a consultant with Berwicks Consultants Limited providing Crisis Management Training to senior management teams in the civil-site nuclear operators, retiring fully in 2013.
An unexpected honour was to be inducted in 2005 as a Magistrate in the Duchy of Lancaster sitting on the Liverpool Bench. I remained as such until reaching the maximum age of 70.
A long, long way from the small boy in a big blazer sitting anxiously in class wondering if his teacher would be nice.
Qualifications
- Doctorate in Business Administration - 1998
- Masters Degree in Business Administration 1992
- Member of Institution of Nuclear Engineers 1977
- Member of Institution of Electrical Engineers 1976
- Diploma in Nuclear Reactor Technology, RNC, Greenwich. 1976
- Chartered Engineer 1976
- BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering 1971
Also:
- Nuclear (PWR) Category A1 Operating Licence 1977 & 1983
- Licensed as Nuclear Procedures Authorisation Group Chairman 1980 & 1992
Training and Courses
Various short management and other professional courses including:
- Nuclear Accident Procedures Course - RNC Greenwich
- Integrated Emergency Management - Home Office College, York
- Multi-Agency Response to Nuclear Incidents - Home Office College, York
- Quality Management and Auditing - BESL internal course
- Quality Assurance Course - BESL internal course
- Project Management Theory, Systems and Practice
- The ARTEMIS Project Management system
- Proposal Writing for MoD Contracts
Original Papers
- Doctoral Thesis: The importance of ‘Managerial Maturity’ for organisations conducting single-site Collaboration initiatives
- Masters Dissertation: Consideration of the factors necessary to address the public perception of Nuclear issues
- Nuclear Diploma Thesis: Investigation into the use of Lithium Fluoride in Thermoluminescent Dosimeters for the measurement of Low Energy X-Rays, and Gamma Radiations
- Business Diploma: Progress Reporting for large complex projects using minimum management resource