Our Chair of Trustees, Captain John L David (MN), and our First Lieutenant, Andy Unger , together with a party of Cadets attended the Banquet. The Company’s Clerk, Nicholas Westgarth, wrote in a thank you letter to the Unit “We are proud to be associated with such a confident and polite group of young Londoners”.
Photo: John L David and the Cadets
February proved to be a great month for training outcomes.
First Aid, Third Class was achieved by Zak Bartley, Gemma Knowles and India Steel.
Rigging and Ropework, Third Class was achieved by “JJ” Leblebici, Steven Villacis-Freire and Callum Naughton-O’Caoimh.
CIS (Comms) Basic was achieved by “JJ” Leblebici, Dariusz Wozniak, Melanie Villacis-Freire and Emila Temblett.
RYA Power Level 1 was achieved by Teddy Janes, Callum Naughton-O’Caoimh and “JJ” Leblebici. Thanks for this course are due to a generous donation- you know who you are!
Piping, Basic was achieved by “JJ” Leblebici, Dawid Wozniak and Dariusz Wozniak.
Junior Staff Member Jay Randall passed the Youth Development Core Skills course.
Photo: The training did not take long to pay off. At the District Drill and Piping Competition our team came second in the piping and Dawid Wozniak came third in the individual event.
Di Norman had been a stalwart supporter of the Unit, since her son, David, joined as a Cadet in the 1980’s. Di’s trademark was always her sense of fun. Through her long career as a member of the Parents’ and Supporters’ Association she selflessly gave her time to countless events for the Cadets, always lifting spirits with her unflagging cheer.
Di’s funeral, in Dorset, was attended by a party from the Unit including our Commanding Officer, Paul Townsend; Able Cadet James Ambler; District Officer (and former CoLSCC CO) Mark Macey and Richard Groves, who commanded the Unit in the 1980’s. Also present were Di’s longstanding PASA friends Brenda Cox and Sue and Gary Payne.
Photo: The Unit wreath. There’s a photo of Di, having fun, in the Gallery section under “Volunteering”.
The Unit was massively fortunate to host two guests of honour- each, in their different ways, very important to the Unit and, in one case, to the future of Planet Earth. We were joined for the evening by staff and cadets from the Southwark and Waltham Forest Units. We were also delighted to welcome as guests for the evening the London Area Officer, Commander Tim Porter RN, and Phil Reed OBE, the Director of HMS Belfast.
Lewis Pugh- Environmental Campaigner
Born in Plymouth into a naval family, Lewis’s father was Surgeon Rear Admiral P D Gordon Pugh and his mother was a senior nurse in the Queen Alexandria’s Royal Naval Nursing Service. When Lewis was aged 10 his family emigrated to South Africa. After qualifying as a lawyer Lewis pursued a career as a maritime lawyer in the City of London, whilst also serving a reservist in the Special Air Service. In 2003 Lewis left his law practice in order to campaign for the protection of the oceans. Lewis has worked tirelessly to highlight issues such as climate change, over-fishing and pollution. He has carried out a series of extreme swims to highlight the effects of climate change, including a 90-mile swim across the, disappearing Maldives, a swim across a glacial lake in the Himalayas and a one kilometre swim across the North Pole.
Lewis gave the most amazing inspirational talk to the Unit. This was based around the North Pole swim and illustrated with both slides and video; the point, of course, being that it should not be possible to swim the North Pole. Lewis explained the origins of his passion for the natural world, starting from his father’s experiences as a participant in British nuclear weapons tests. He then talked the cadets through many aspects of the expedition- team building, motivation, achievement of goals and endurance. Lewis’s message to the youngsters was: be happy, achieve your ambitions. This, we whole-heartedly endorse.
Mary Cosgrove- Community Life Champion, Isle of Dogs ASDA
While Lewis’s great and noble works are on a planetary scale, no less noble are those who beaver away for worthy causes on a local scale. Mary and her employer provide support to local charities in and around the Isle of Dogs. Charities thus supported are too numerous to list but include a hospice, several charities that reach out to the elderly and needy, a drug out-reach charity, the local Scouts and the City of London Sea Cadet Unit.
For two years running Mary has given the Unit plum, pre-Christmas bag packing slots. The Unit has assisted with a multi-faith service of remembrance held at ADSA by St Joseph’s Hospice and has also manned a water station at last year’s “walk for cancer”. The money raised from the most recent bag-pack has been allocated to this year’s Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme program.
Mary was delighted to present a number of awards to Cadets at the end of the evening.
Photo: Mary presents Cadet Dawid Wozniak with a certificate for completing the Expedition Section of his Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award, Lewis in centre background.
See more photos on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CityofLondonSCC?fref=ts and on this site under News- Gallery- Events
Our team of junior (aged 10 and 11) cadets came a creditable third in this battle of brains.
Photo: Left to Right- Maria Garces, Johnathan Gols-Baldajos and Kai Thompson.
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