VETERANS and enthusiasts were welcomed to a special event celebrating air and marine engineering.

The group from The Society for Nautical Research (South) visited HMS Sultan in Gosport for a visit to the Air Engineering (AE) and Marine Engineering (ME) Museums.

The Society for Nautical Research (South) – SNR(S) – is a group of people who meet monthly from October to May at the Royal Maritime Club.

They learn about and discuss matters of nautical and maritime interest.

From June to September the Society also offers members day excursions.

Among the items on display within the ME museum, of particular interest to Society members was a model of the County Class Destroyer HMS London, a ship which veteran and Naval historical researcher, Lt Cdr Retd Mark Brady had served on from 1975-1977.

Mark said: “I joined Dartmouth in Sep 1968 and retired from the Service at the end of 2002. I joined as a Seaman Officer, Executive Branch and went on to become a Warfare Officer, completing all sorts of stuff within Naval intelligence.

“I chose to wear my shirt with a HMS London crest on it, as I thought it might be a conversation starter and I was pleased to see that there is a model of my old ship within the museum.

“The Ship was in refit when I joined it, but we later went across the Atlantic for the bicentenary of the American declaration of independence for the New York Naval review in 1976.

“After my retirement I went on to study MSc and focussed on why humans have museums and the heritage of the UK Armed Forces.

“Armed forces museums foster ethos and morale within the Armed Forces, provide a history of why we did it and how we did it and help form how we can operate today. It is also important for keeping the Armed Forces in the public eye.

“As a nation, we might not be the largest in terms of numbers within the Armed Forces but we’re still up there with the best.”