Lieutenant Commander David Gillett Royal Navy

Commanding Officer HMS MERSEY

Lieutenant Commander David Gillett joined the Royal Navy as a University Cadet following education at Berkhamsted School in Hertfordshire. After basic training at Britannia Royal Naval College, he undertook a Masters Degree in Engineering at Durham University, graduating in 1998. He returned to sea in 1999 as the Navigator of HMS Dulverton, for a hugely varied 2 years in and around Northern Ireland conducting Counter Terrorism operations.

Selected for sub specialisation as an Observer in 2001, he completed flying training at 750 and 702 Naval Air Squadrons to join the Fleet Air Arm as a Mk3 Lynx Observer. Following conversion to the Mk8 variant he was assigned to HMS Richmond for a Caribbean deployment dominated by disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane Ivan. He then joined HMS Argyll as the Flight Commander for two deployments to the Gulf, interspersed with a successful period of Counter Drugs operations in West Africa.

A second line role at RNAS Yeovilton followed where he qualified as an Observer Instructor in 2008, preceding a most rewarding period at 702 Squadron teaching the next generation of Lynx aircrew.

In a return to the core surface stream, he completed Principal Warfare Officer training in 2011, before re-deploying to the Middle East in HMS Somerset, as the Above Water Warfare specialist and Operations Officer, at the height of the multi-national Counter Piracy effort in the Indian Ocean.

Subsequently as Operations Officer in HMS Bulwark, the Fleet Flagship, he was intimately involved in OP OLYMPICS at Weymouth and the COUGAR 12 deployment to the Mediterranean as the lead amphibious vessel of the Response Force Task Group.

Lieutenant Commander Gillett assumed command of HMS Mersey in January 2014 and is privileged to lead the Ship as she transitions from refit to re-join the Fleet ready for front-line operations.