HMS Grimsby

Military experience

Giles Palin was educated at Ryde School on the Isle of Wight before reading law at Brunel University. He joined BRNC Dartmouth on completion of his degree in 1996.

After fleet training in HMS Plover (which included the handover of Hong Kong to China) and HMS Birmingham, he completed Officer of the Watch (OOW) training and saw service in a number of OOW and Navigating appointments between 1998 and 2004, including HM Ships Inverness, Gloucester and Newcastle, which saw deployments to the Gulf, Far East, Falklands and Caribbean.

On completion of his appointment as Navigating Officer of HMS Newcastle in 2004, Palin took command of Cambridge URNU and the attached patrol boat HMS Raider.

Initial Staff Course and Principal Warfare Officer’s course (PWO Course) followed in 2006, from which Palin qualified as a PWO(Above Water Warfare) and was appointed to HMS Albion for his initial PWO tour, seeing deployments to the Arctic circle and West Africa during his period onboard.

Palin successfully passed the Specialist Navigating Officer’s course in 2009, where he was awarded the Captain Farmer Memorial Prize. A short period on the staff of Flag Officer Sea Training (FOST)(South) as a Navigation Sea Rider followed, before being appointed as the Navigating Officer HMS Ark Royal – where the ship lead a Carrier Strike Task Group deployment to the Eastern coast of the US and Canada.

Palin took Command of MCM1 Crew 5, and HMS Grimsby in August 2011.