Royal visit to Bahrain

The Earl and Countess of Wessex have paid a festive visit to British sailors on active service in the Gulf.

After a two-day visit to Afghanistan, the royal couple called in on Bahrain, hub of the Royal Navy’s operations east of Suez – it’s home to the UK Maritime Component Commander, his staff, and four minehunters, and is also a regular port of call for RN and Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels operating in the region.

As well as being received by the king and prime minister of Bahrain, the Wessexes toured repair and support ship RFA Diligence and Trafalgar-class submarine HMS Triumph, taking a break from patrol.

The couple also received an update on the work of the UKMCC – the Royal Navy’s headquarters in the Middle East – and Triumph’s recent contribution to Operation Ellamy off the coast of Libya; the T-boat fired the opening salvo of Tomahawk cruise missiles – and conducted two patrols off Libya, during which she continued to target Colonel Gaddafi’s military machine in support of the NATO mission to protect the Libyan population.

Having been served lunch literally ‘fit for Royalty’, a tour of the Diligence gave the Earl – who enjoys the honorary title of Commodore-in-Chief of the RFA – and Countess the opportunity to meet some of the crew and to see first hand how an auxiliary differs from a Royal Navy vessel.

Chief Officer Chris Mackenzie RFA said: “To have our Commodore-in-Chief aboard Diligence is a rare privilege. The ship’s company has worked very hard preparing for the visit and I know that they have all been looking forward to the day since it was confirmed.”

Whilst touring Triumph the Countess managed to get some ‘hands-on’ tuition in the use of the submarine’s periscope and also took great interest in the welfare of the families of those deployed away from home over Christmas.

Some of Triumph’s personnel have their families joining them for the festive period and during a tour of the missile compartment, Lt Cdr David ‘Bing’ Crosby, Triumph’s Executive Officer, explained how his children were worried that their Christmas presents wouldn’t get delivered to Bahrain.

He commented: “I’ve told them to leave a note for Santa with their address here; I’m sure he’ll find a way to deliver them.”

The British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Bahrain, Iain Lindsay, hosted a reception for the royal couple, attended by Bahraini officials, Servicemen and women based in Bahrain and local expatriates.

The Ambassador spoke of his admiration of the work the Armed Forces do in the Middle East and took the opportunity to present awards to Naval and RAF staff from UKMCC in recognition of their security and force protection duties.

RAF WO Ken Prentice, force protection officer for the UKMCC, commented: “To receive this award at the end of my deployment is an honour. It has been a privilege to work with the Royal Navy for the past few months and to be recognised in this way is very humbling.”