First and last at sea for navy man

Not only will Kevin, 35, miss his wife, Amy, and daughters Isabella, six and Isla, two, he will also be making a little bit of navy history as the last gunnery officer ever to serve on a type 42 destroyer, HMS Edinburgh.

This will be his first Christmas away from home, serving on the ship with a 260-strong crew, on a six-month deployment in the South Atlantic.

A former student at St Philip Howard High School, Barnham, Kevin reflected on the prospect of being so far away this week.

He said: “It’s a family Christmas normally. We’ll get up and go through the stockings before going to church and then coming home for a turkey dinner with all the trimmings.

“Sometimes we see our respective parents and other times we have a quiet one with the four of us. We’ll all play games and then probably go for a walk in the afternoon after dinner.

“This is the first time I have been deployed over Christmas and been away from them, so I will miss them a lot. It will be hard for the girls as well, but I will try and Skype if I can.”

This is the first time he has served as a gunnery officer, dealing with the maintenance and capability of the ship’s weapons.

He will return in March, at the end of the final operational voyage of HMS Edinburgh, the last of the Type 42s.

“It is a privileged position in that I will also be the last ever gunnery officer on board a Type 42 and on HMS Edinburgh,” said Kevin.

His next post will be a senior warfare officer with the Flag Officer Sea Training organisation.