Ian Mitchell RN – Part I

© Royal Navy Instructor Officers’ Association, 2019 - all rights reserved Service Story of Lt Ian Mitchell RN – Part I I suspect that my path to becoming an Instructor Officer (IO) in the Royal Navy is unlikely to have been followed by anyone else. I began my naval career as an Ordinary Seaman serving in the London Division of the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) on minesweepers. What was perhaps even more unusual was that while I served in the RNR I was also working as a librarian at the Royal Naval College at Greenwich and living in the wardroom there. I joined London Division RNR (HMS President) in 1979 and spent much of my free time over the next two years attending drill nights ashore or at sea aboard Ton-Class minesweepers. During my time I spent two weeks in HMS Glasserton in May 1981, taking part in Exercise Spring Train. I flew out to Lisbon along with a relief crew of fellow reservists to take over the ship and then sailed to Gibraltar for minesweeping exercises, subsequently returning to Chatham. One of my fellow RNR ratings was a 29 year-old Oxford graduate, Julian Lewis, who is now a long-serving Conservative politician and MP. HMS Glasserton at Gibraltar during exercise Spring Train The other part of my life at Greenwich was spent as an assistant librarian providing support to the student community attending the Royal Naval Staff Course and Lieutenants Greenwich Courses (RNSC and LGC). By the time I applied to join the Instructor Branch, and having passed the Admiralty Interview Board in November 1980, I knew over 300 RN officers of various ranks - I must be the only cadet to join Dartmouth having previously been dined out as a member of staff in the Painted Hall at Greenwich. One of my many memories of Greenwich was watching the Royal Marine Band giving displays and performing ‘sunset’. Little did I know, that less than three years later I would find myself serving alongside this talented group of people. 1 The band of the Royal Marines playing at RNC Greenwich Training at BRNC I was 27 when I arrived at Britannia Royal Naval College (BRNC) Dartmouth in September 1981 and one of the oldest in my intake (an ex Ford Engineer called Chris Barnes was the eldest). I was also different in that I was an arts graduate (History) while the rest of my group, which included fellow Schoolie Mike Rose, were Science or Engineering graduates. I believe I am also correct in saying that our group of aspiring instructor officers was the first to follow the same training schedule as other graduates, i.e., a six-month course which included time both at BRNC and at sea on the Dartmouth Training Ship (DTS). Most of the naval cadets who arrived at BRNC would not be known by the officers who served on the staff. Unfortunately, that was not the case for me, as I already knew at least 10 officers in various jobs at the college due to my time at Greenwich. For example, my Divisional Officer at Blake Division, Lieutenant Commander Tim Behets RN, had been a student at Greenwich, as had Brian Davies, one of the more senior Schoolie officers at BRNC. This did me no favours; in fact quite the opposite, as I tended to find that more was expected of me. On the day of my passing out parade at BRNC Dartmouth, April 1982 2 The good news was that Tim Behets had ensured that my Assistant Divisional Officer (ADO) was a highly experienced and very wise Special Duties (SD) WE Lieutenant who didn’t know me at all and didn’t cut me any slack either! He proved to be tough on my mistakes and had a sardonic sense of humour, but was also a fantastic role model as a leader who knew how to get the best out of his cadets. I can’t speak for my contemporaries but personally I didn’t find the training at BRNC easy and I wasn’t sure I was going to complete the course. I was, however, determined to try and become a naval officer, though looking back now I probably wasn’t confident that I would do so. I didn’t particularly enjoy my time at the College as I felt the staff treated everyone as if they had only just left school. However, I was much more at ease when we spent two months at sea on the DTS, HMS Fearless, chiefly because we spent our time going to the West Indies and back. Looking back now, some 38 years later, I can honestly say that I was quite surprised I successfully completed training at Dartmouth, and in April 1982 I found myself standing to attention along with a number of other IOs, including John Mealor, Chris Barnes, and Mike Rose on the parade ground at Dartmouth attending Lord High Admiral’s Divisions with Princess Alexandria representing Her Majesty. It was a pleasant coincidence that I had previously received my degree from Princess Alexandria (as Chancellor of Lancaster University) and that she also presided over my passing out parade. HMS Fearless with the Leander class frigate HMS Achilles in company A Sojourn in Scotland In contrast to my class colleagues at Dartmouth, many of whom went to a fleet at war (it was the time of the Falklands war), or to training bases in Portsmouth or Plymouth, I went north to Scotland. My first job was at HMS Caledonia in Rosyth where I taught general and communications skills to future Marine Engineering Artificers, and acted as an Assistant Divisional Officer. The next six months was a busy period, not least as in lieu of leave, I spent five weeks aboard HMS Gurkha during Basic Operational Sea Training (BOST), completed a two week Mountain Leadership training course in Scotland, and the Divisional Officers school at HMS Excellent before returning to Caledonia and the job of commanding the RN Ceremonial Guard at the Remembrance parade in Edinburgh. The fact that I was given the latter role would have caused a few wry smiles among my fellow cadets who remembered that I hardly excelled on the parade ground at BRNC. I must have improved my marching skills however, as my Captain, John Gorst, received a signal from the Port Admiral at Rosyth praising our performance during the parade. I gradually settled into my job in Scotland and also managed to develop my teaching skills. It was a busy time as, although we had long breaks (well at least some did!), we sometimes worked five and a half or six days a week. I did, however, enjoy spending time in the mountains in Scotland as we led groups of apprentices on adventurous training. I even learned to ski on the Cairngorm ski slopes. 3 Time with the Royals Just as I seemed to have settled into my job at HMS Caledonia while also enjoying life in Scotland, my appointer sent me a letter saying he had decided to move me slightly earlier than expected. My next job was to be the Assistant Education Officer at the Royal Marines base in Poole. This was something of a surprise to me, particularly as one of my tasks was to teach technical drawing - something I was utterly unequipped to do. When I left HMS Caledonia in February 1984, I had no idea that I would not return to serve again with the Navy and in fact I was to spend my remaining time as an officer attached to the Royal Marines. In the eighties, the Corps of the Royal Marines was some 8,000 strong. It was an elite force and anyone who served in a Commando unit had to complete the infamous Commando course. In general, a naval officer attached to the Royal Marines would also be expected to do the commando course. Thankfully, however, not all posts were required to do so and mine was one of those. In 1984, Royal Marines Poole was the base for the elite Special Boat Squadron (SBS) and also Landing Craft training. The cabin next door to mine was occupied by a US Navy SEAL officer on an exchange post, so life was rarely dull and the mess was full of lively personnel. My boss was Frank Ratcliffe who seemed to be a confirmed bachelor. However, he surprised me later when, if I recall correctly, he got married to the widow of an SBS officer and went on to have a highly successful career. My inadequacy in the area of technical drawing sadly came to light and, regrettably, it was decided that I should be replaced and re-appointed as the Education Officer to the Royal Marines School of Music at Walmer in Deal. I was not happy with this appointment and I still recall that it felt as if I was being ‘posted to Siberia’ with a consequent impact on any aspirations I might have had for a longer career in the Navy. I arrived in Deal in late May of 1984 after a month’s training on resettlement in the MOD, London. My consolation prize for being sent to Deal was that my old boss at Poole, Colonel Rowe, arranged for me to spend five weeks attached to 40 Commando, which was then serving in Cyprus. The Commando was split in two for the tour. One half was on UN Peacekeeping duties near Nicosia and the other in garrison on the coast at Dhekelia. I recall that when commuting between one and the other in a vehicle, I would have to exchange my RN beret for a blue UN one and put on a UN shoulder flash and then do the same clothing switch in reverse.

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