HMS Pursuer

Military experience

Lieutenant Gary Bickley was born in Cumbria and grew up in and around the county city of Carlisle. He joined the Royal Navy in January 2001 as a Naval College Entrant.

Upon completion of initial training at BRNC Dartmouth he conducted Common Fleet training on HMS Sutherland, during an anti drugs patrol in the Caribbean culminating in an official reception for HRH Prince Charles alongside in Veracruz, Mexico.

After successfully completing his fleet board in 2002 he joined HMS Ledbury for Specialist Fleet Time, during this time he undertook an exchange with the Singaporean Navy, taking part in their 4 month Midshipmen’s training deployment around the south china seas.

Passing Joint Warfare Officer Course in 2003 he was appointed as Gunnery Officer in HMS Inverness where he undertook an 8 month NATO Deployment with Mine Countermeasures Force North, focussing on the Baltic and the western coast of Europe.

There then followed a 6 month operational tour in Iraq, training the Iraqi Navy in basic navigation. On his return to the UK he was assigned to the Principle Navigators course in September 2005 before joining HMS Portland as Action Officer of the Watch.

After a nine month refit and an intensive operational sea training package he moved on to complete the Fleet Navigating Officers course in summer 2007. Once qualified he was assigned to HMS Tyne as the Navigating Officer. There then followed 14 challenging and rewarding months patrolling the United Kingdom’s territorial waters and Economic Exclusion Zone enforcing European fishery legislation, including another sea training package.

As part of the Fishery Protection squadron he then followed the normal personnel cycle and joined the Falkland Islands guardship HMS Clyde in February 2009. During this time he navigated the ship to South Georgia and took her in to a number of rarely visited bays and inlets, as well as deploying to Montevideo and completing a further period of sea training.

He then flew out to join HMS Cumberland in the Seychelles, again as Navigator, bringing her back from her highly successful anti-piracy deployment off the west coast of Africa.

Another intensive period of sea training followed in summer 2010 preparing the ship for her next deployment. Instead of deploying with Cumberland however he was sent to join the Navigation Training school at HMS Collingwood as the instructor for the Principle Navigators course.

Completion of the Royal Navy’s premier Navigation course “Spec N” immediately preceded assuming command of HMS Smiter and Glasgow & Strathclyde University Royal Naval Unit in March 2012, later assuming command of HMS Pursuer in September 2012 when she was reassigned to Glasgow URNU.