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UK flagship’s captain toasts a century of family service to the Navy and nation

Cdre Jeff Dad and Sub Lt Will Blackett in 2004
17 January 2025
The captain of Britain’s biggest warship raised an emotional toast to his family this week as they marked 100 years’ continuous service to the nation.

Every day since mid-January 1925 there has always been at least one Blackett in the Royal Navy – all the way up to Captain Will Blackett, Commanding Officer of Britain’s flagship, HMS Prince of Wales.

He is the fourth generation of Blacketts in the Senior Service, with careers of father and son overlapping – making more than 111 years’ collective service.

As well as a proud, continuous history of service to the nation, Captain Will believes the Blackett story mirrors the social mobility many Britons have enjoyed over the past century: in their case, from dockyard shipwright to commanding the country’s most powerful warship.

For the record, this is a snapshot of the Blacketts and their naval service:

  • William Blackett (great grandad), born in Newcastle in 1902. Joined up as an ordnance artificer (in modern Royal Navy parlance a weapons engineer) at HMS Pembroke in Chatham in January 1925 after seven years as an apprentice engineer with the legendary Swan Hunter shipyard on Tyneside. He served for 22 years, leaving in 1947 as a chief petty officer (and also a trained diver), briefly becoming a Royal Marines policeman.
  • William Blackett (grandad), born in Wallsend in 1926. Joined the Royal Navy through HMS Raleigh in July 1942 as an ordnance artificer apprentice, was commissioned in 1956, and left the Service in 1976 as an acting lieutenant commander after 34 years and five months.
  • Jeffrey Blackett (dad), born in Portsmouth in 1955, joined Dartmouth in 1973 as a trainee supply officer and left in November 2004 as a commodore after 31 years and two months, but continued to serve the Armed Forces as their Judge Advocate General until October 2020.
  • William Blackett, born in Portsmouth in 1982, joined Dartmouth in September 2001 as a warfare officer and has commanded frigate HMS Lancaster before being appointed captain of HMS Prince of Wales at the beginning of last year.

And for good measure, although this is a story following the Blackett side of the family… Captain Will’s mum Sally was a Wren officer (she left the Service when she became pregnant) whose father and brother were also naval officers.

 
Celebrating this family achievement has involved reaching back into history and learning more about my ancestors – it is quite humbling to be at the end of a line of such brilliant people and I hope I have done them proud!

Captain Will

And while the Blackett name has been a constant thread through the Senior Service since 1925, Jeff says it’s not the only continual factor.

“Much has changed in the 100 years since my grandfather joined up in 1925 but the one constant is the professionalism and dedication of the people who serve,” Jeff added.

“He would not recognise the technical advances in modern warships, but he would have an affinity with the men and women who serve in them. The Royal Navy is in our blood, and long may it remain so.”

Will was enthralled by stories his late grandfather told him of service in WW2 – such as watching an air raid by Junkers dive-bombers attacking the naval base at Rosyth from a train stopped on the iconic Forth Bridge – although initially his father at one time he did advise his son not to join the Royal Navy.

Dad – and Captain Will – are delighted he did anyway as the latter has had “a great adventure”  so far. He is now responsible for more than 800 men and women on a daily basis on Britain’s biggest warship – rising to 1,600 souls when the flagship sails from Portsmouth in the spring leading her first Carrier Strike Group. 

“Celebrating this family achievement has involved reaching back into history and learning more about my ancestors – it is quite humbling to be at the end of a line of such brilliant people and I hope I have done them proud!” Captain Will said. 

“HMS Prince of Wales’ deployment this year will take me to many of the places my grandfather served – I will take his old photographs with me and look forward to retracing his steps.”

In his first week in the Navy, his dad Jeff bought a flagon of rum in Gibraltar, opened only for special occasions. This week father and son shared a tot to toast the family’s service.

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