I joined the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth in September 1957 straight after leaving MC. No gap years then !!

With me were five other OMs and we brought the total number of OMs then training at Dartmouth to twenty-three - not a bad contribution for a school with no particular naval connection. I was commissioned two years later and after service worldwide in a variety of small ships, including fourteen months on the West Indies Station, I started flying training as an Observer in 1962 (the Navy calls air navigators ‘Observers’) at the Naval Air Station Hal Far in Malta.

In between being violently air sick in the dreadfully unstable Sea Prince aircraft that the Navy then used for Observer flying training, I tracked down the golden voice belonging to the Wren in the Control Tower who gave us our instructions. But more of her in due course! A year later, having gained my ‘wings’ I was appointed to 814 Naval Air Squadron flying anti-submarine helicopters from HMS Victorious and HMS Albion and saw service in Aden, the Far East and Borneo during the confrontation with Indonesia.

Returning to home waters and the surface navy, I married Sue, the Wren in the Control Tower at Hal Far and spent the next two years as Operations Officer of HMS Russell before joining the Royal Australian Navy for a two year exchange appointment in the Aircraft Carrier HMAS Melbourne. Having been promoted to Lieutenant Commander whilst in Australia, I returned home to be the Senior Observer of 824 Squadron, the first Sea King Squadron, in HMS Ark Royal and then as Senior Instructor at the Naval Observer School, sadly no longer in Malta, but at the Naval Air Station Culdrose in Cornwall.

I was promoted Commander in 1973 and after a spell as the helicopter specialist at the Maritime Tactical School, took command of the frigate HMS Plymouth for a year long round-the-world deployment, going out via Suez and back through the Panama canal. A further command, HMS Berwick, followed after which my fair share of sea command had temporarily run out and I was consigned to a desk in the Directorate of Naval Air Warfare responsible for drawing up the Staff Requirements for future naval helicopters.

Then, in 1979, one of those events occurred which initially seemed a cruel stroke of luck. I had been selected for a further sea appointment, by then becoming as rare as hen’s teeth, when the ship to which I was to be appointed suffered a serious fire whilst in refit. There being no further sea going appointments available I thought I was going to lose out. However, as luck would have it, a new Commander-in-Chief Fleet required a Naval Assistant who had both sea command and MOD experience. The short straw fell on me and there followed an amazingly privileged and varied two years at the heart of Fleet Command. I was promoted Captain during this appointment and then returned to the Ministry of Defence as the Deputy Director of Naval Air Warfare during the period covering the Falklands war.

Subsequent appointments included a return to the Tactical School as Director and further sea commands of HMS Boxer, the first of a brand new class of ‘stretched’ Type 22s which I collected from the builders, Yarrows, on the Clyde; as Senior Naval Officer Middle East in charge of the Armilla Task Force during the Iran/Iraq war, an appointment briefly mentioned at the end of ‘Paths of Progress’ for those who have read it and finally HMS Brilliant as Captain Second Frigate Squadron.

I was promoted Rear Admiral in 1989 and sent to Mons in Belgium as the Maritime Advisor to Supreme Allied Commander, Europe. An unusual spot for a sailor but being less than half an hour from the French and German borders and a mere three hours from the Ardennes on a Sunday morning has advantages, especially gastronomic ones! But good things have to come to an end and my thirty-six years in a dark blue suit ended with three years as the head of the Fleet Air Arm as Flag Officer Naval Aviation with my Headquarters at Yeovilton, Somerset.

What to do next? To some extent some balance has been restored: fifteen years ago when I retired at fifty-three, anyone over fifty was deemed to be totally past their sell-by date. Even worse anyone who had been lucky enough to reach General, Air or Flag rank was considered likely to be totally impossible so new careers didn’t actually grow on trees. But once again an ostensibly unexciting event was to have unexpected consequences.

A chance meeting in a London club led to my being appointed the National Director of the Trident Trust, an educational charity whose principal activity was placing some 150,000 teenagers annually in work experience from 60 offices around the country. Not hugely exciting in itself but it certainly took me to many places in the UK that my relatively ‘sheltered’ military life had not previously exposed me to! It also brought me back to MC as another feature of Trident’s work was to certificate ‘community involvement’ and ‘personal challenge’, not dissimilar to the D of E Award scheme and for three years between 1996 –1999 I presented Trident certificates in what I knew as A House to worthy recipients!

At about the same time as I started with Trident, I received a discreet telephone call one day saying, ‘If you were asked to be a Gentleman Usher to the Queen (a) would you wish to do so and more importantly (b) would you be able to do so. Back to Trident. Given a less flexible job I would have had to say no since if you take it on you have to be available at the drop of a hat. Fourteen years, one hundred and thirty-four Investitures, fifty-three Garden Parties, five royal funerals, one royal wedding (and another coming up shortly!) fiftieth and sixtieth anniversaries, a golden jubilee, a diamond wedding anniversary and so much else I thank my lucky stars for being in the right place at the right time!

With the big ‘70’ approaching next year, Marlborough seems a long time ago. Two daughters, two sons, Nick (LI 1983-85), and James (LI 1984-89) and seven grand-children keep Sue, the golden voice from the Hal Far Control Tower, and me reasonably busy. Just in case boredom might set in we have just respectively been installed as Master and Mistress-elect of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators of London. I step down as a Gentleman Usher next year. A week later, by a happy coincidence I start my Master’s year which coincides with the centenary of Naval Aviation. It looks as if it will still be a couple of years before I get round to penning the update, long promised to Martin Evans, for the next Club Magazine.

 

Photographs:

Top: Rear Admiral Colin Cooke-Priest

Middle: Colin Cooke-Priest as Flag Officer Naval Aviation presenting his son Sub-Lieutentant Nick Cooke-Priest (LI 1983-85) with his 'wings' in 1992. Nick is now a Lieutenant Commander and second-in-command of HMS Gloucester.

Bottom: The Queen with Rear Admiral Colin Cooke-Priest