THEY are brave Hampshire servicemen who will be spending Christmas thousands of miles away from their families.

Leading engineering technician Richard Carter and Lt Cdr Marcel Rosenberg will be on board the Royal Navy Type 45 destroyer HMS Daring, which is on a nine-month global deployment.

The Hampshire-based ship will be in Singapore during the festive period, but sailors will be able to call their families from shore.

Marcel, 42, who comes from Blackfield, will be flying his wife Sarah and five-month-old son Isaac out to meet him.

He said: “I expect Sarah will be a bit jet-lagged and a little frayed when she arrives so I will book her a massage and hope my son recognises me and doesn’t cry the whole time I look after him on my own!

“Then we will look for a nice place to have a relaxing Christmas meal. It will be so lovely to spend it with them as Isaac was only ten weeks old when I deployed.”

In a Christmas message to his family, he said: “I miss you all very much and my thoughts are with you always. Don’t forget to play silly games. The clue is, ‘It’s a Christmas message, three words, first, second and third words are all one syllable’.

"I love you!”

Richard, 34, from Fareham, will be spending Christmas away from his wife Nicole and children Annalise, 5, and Samara, 4.

He plans to use the FaceTime tool on his mobile phone to contact his family once he gets to Singapore.

He said: “I always spend Christmas with my wife, kids, family and friends from church.

“I usually stay up late the night before wrapping up all the presents and then in the morning we video the destruction of gift paper from the girls. Then we’ll go to church, get home and finish the cooking before socialising with friends and family.

“To my girls, Daddy will be home soon so continue to be good for Mummy and I’ll be bringing all your presents with me when I get back.

“To my wife Nicole, thank you for selflessly holding down the fort every time I had to be away.

“I love you so very much and I will be home as soon as I can.”