A SALTASH man has been presented with a maritime medal by Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal at a ceremony held at Trinity House in London.
Captain Colin Campbell Brown, from the village of Forder, was successfully nominated for the Merchant Navy Medal for Meritorious Service in 2020.
The medal has been awarded to 20 recipients a year since its introduction in 2016 by the Department for Transport.
Presented annually by Princess Anne – usually in the winter but 2020’s event had to be postponed until this summer – it is awarded to ‘men and women who show exceptional devotion to duty, exemplary service and act as an outstanding example to others’.
Colin Brown, now 82, worked in the Merchant Navy and associated industries for 59 years.
He first went to sea in 1957 with the British and Commonwealth Shipping Company, trading worldwide in various ship types.
He came ashore as Master Mariner in 1971 to join the Institute of Marine Studies, Plymouth Polytechnic, lecturing to both seafarers and undergraduates, whilst making annual updating returns to sea as Mate or Master until 1982.
From 1989 to 1994 he was Lecturer and Head of Marine & Fisheries Training, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, under UK ODA contracts.
He then moved to Hong Kong where he was Associate Professor in the Department of Maritime Studies, Hong Kong Polytechnic University from 1994 to 1999.
After returning to the UK in 1999, he was, from 2000 until 2015, a contracted consultant to the Department for Transport, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, DTI, DECC and the offshore renewable energy industry, mainly with respect to the various effects of large offshore installations – and in particular Offshore Wind Farms – on marine navigation, safety, and search and rescue.
Outside work, he was in 1971 a Founder Member of the Nautical Institute and in 2016 was trustee for the Plymouth Merchant Navy Monument, setting up Charity No.1167934.
The completed monument, on Plymouth Hoe, was dedicated on Merchant Navy Day, September 3, 2019, by Princess Anne – from whom he has also just received his Merchant Navy Medal for Meritorious Service.
Colin, accompanied by his wife Carole, received his medal last Tuesday (June 29) at Trinity House in London’s Tower Hill – it is the headquarters of organisation Trinity House, the official authority for lighthouses in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar founded by King Henry VIII in 1514 and sometimes more formally known as the Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford Strood.
Its full historic title is ‘The Master, Wardens and Assistants of the Guild Fraternity or Brotherhood of the most glorious and undivided Trinity and of St Clement in the Parish of Deptford Strond in the County of Kent’.
Colin said of the London ceremony: “On the Trinity House stairs we were divided into two groups because of COVID separation, and also it meant that HRH [Princess Anne] couldn’t pin the medals on us at the ceremony. Instead they were presented in a box to each recipient.”
He added: “I would say that I was very proud of the achievements of all those with whom I have worked at sea and ashore over the past 65 years, both in the UK and overseas, and a small part I may have played in their successes.”
A surprise also awaited Colin and Carole back in Forder after their visit to London and a stay on the Sussex coast.
Colin said: “When we arrived home on Friday evening – having spent seven hours in dreadful traffic driving back from Brighton – the village had laid on a completely unexpected reception for me. That was really nice.”