Merseyside Branch

of the Submariners Association

Branch President

Vice Admiral Paul Lambert CB

Message from Vice Admiral Paul Lambert CB

Fellow Members,

It was a real honour to be asked to take over as President of your Branch. I know many of you; however I expect there will be some who I have yet to meet and I will do my best to become acquainted with as many of you as I can over the next few years. In the meantime, I hope this article will go some way to help introduce myself. Whilst I cannot claim to be a Scouser, I do have family connections with Liverpool. My maternal grandmother was a Liverpudlian, growing up on Wolfe Street, which is now part of the docks. She worked in the munitions plant on Aintree Race Course during the First World War. She left Liverpool for Holland after the war, having married a Dutch sailor. She left behind 3 sisters; the eldest - Mary - had a son called Roy Williams, who joined the Submarine Service in 1943. I think that makes Roy my cousin once removed (although I have always known him as Uncle Roy) and I understand he was a founder member of the Merseyside SOCA branch.

I joined submarines over 30 years after my Uncle Roy had finished serving. I started in Dolphin in 1979 and my Training Officer was Tim McClement. Even then it was obvious that he would do well! Following completion of my Part 1 & 2 training, I got married to Pat during leave and subsequently joined my first boat, Conqueror, under Morley Stephens. The boat had just finished a maintenance period and the plan was for us to sail the following day for couple of days Index off Arran, before coming back alongside for a few days before finally sailing on patrol. I explained this to my new wife, who dutifully came down to the Spit to wave us off. Given 1979 was at the height of the Cold War, our Index only lasted a day before we were re-tasked and headed straight out on a 6-week deployment. So it was that Pat was introduced to life being married to a submariner.