MINUTES OF THE SOCIETY OF THE TWENTY NINTH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE FRIENDS OF THE ROYAL NAVY SUBMARINE MUSEUM FRIDAY 19 SEPTEMBER 2025
’ President s Address.
Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope GCB OBE gave the following address:
“ It is a delight as always to welcome you all here to our museum and to the 2025 AGM of the S/M Museum Friends. A good turnout of 61 members have signed up for the evening, which compares favourably with previous numbers and shows a healthy interest in our work. Although the mayor of Gosport was invited to our event this evening, she was unable to attend but in her MRU, did reinforce the importance and strength of the relationship that the museum has with the town of Gosport and, as you'll hear later, that relationship is important and developing well as consideration is given to what will happen to the old Fort Blockhouse site in the future.
We look forward, at the conclusion of the AGM proceedings, to an Illustrated talk by Will Corbet on Dunbar-Nasmith and an account by Cdr Oliver Morrow RN, who, as Teacher is well placed to talk to us.
The NMRN has had a difficult year. Like me at the time, many of you would not have been aware of a cyber-attack on the computer system of the NMRN. The ransomware attack on 10 December 2024 had an enormous impact upon the NMRM and its business. The recovery process has been lengthy and complicated and has diverted the NMRN staffs focus to the detriment of other important activities. Also, a lot of attention has been paid over the last year to the development of the Royal Marine Museum project.
I am sure there is an expectation from those who don't visit the museum regularly, and maybe this event is the only occasion, that on arrival they will see spectacular changes and improvements in the museum. Well, that is justifiable optimism, but a slightly unrealistic expectation. A great deal of the support provided by the Friend is not always instantly recognisable but the continual process of general upkeep of the site and little tweaks within the museum take both Friends resources and considerable museum staff effort and need to be recognised. However, bigger plans are afoot.
Once the work on the Royal Marine Museum is complete it is intended that the NMRN will create a full plan for the update to this building's mezzanine floor. The aim being to use the space to tell a more up-to-date story of the submarine service including sections on how modern submariners are trained and highlight more recent submarine activities, capturing the history of those submariners serving today in the post-Cold War era. The Friends have already committed a sizable donation to this project and look forward to assisting in its development.
We must always look to the future and Bob Fancy and a small working group formed from the friends committee are looking at how Friends business will be done in the future and how the sterling work of the friends can continue as the reality of the centre of submarine activity cementing its presence a long way north of Gosport comes to pass. Connecting with
serving submariners and placing items of submarine heritage in areas other than the museum, particularly within the Clyde submarine base, are areas of focus.
I'm pleased to say that there has been little negative comment from the decision to stop publishing the All Round Look, and you will remember that it was only the absence of a volunteer editor that precipitated that decision. Our website is an excellent vehicle for outreach to members and non-members and is under constant development. In fact, online activity is a great recruiting tool and of course the Online Book of Remembrance is a real success story.
As always there are changes within the committee with several people moving on and new members joining. Although not here this evening I want to record my thanks to Peter Jeanneret who has been a significant contributor to the committee in his role as treasurer. Although Peter is resigning from the committee, he will continue his work with the Online Book of Remembrance and indeed will continue to offer help from the wings.
As always it falls to me to thank on your behalf all the members of the Committee for the tremendous work they do in ensuring the Friends contribution to this great museum are correctly managed and sensibly focused.
Finally, let me repeat from last year my message that if anyone has capacity and feels they can contribute to the Friends organisation, please do get in contact with the committee and offer your services.”
Apologies. Apologies will be published on the website, with the AGM minutes
Minutes of the 2024 AGM. These were published on the website, proposed by Bob Fancy, seconded by Francis Dickinson, and were accepted as a true and accurate record.
Chairman’s Report:
Welcome to attendees. The chairman reiterated the President’s welcome, particularly to the staff of the NMRN.
Membership. The current membership is 910 Members; the highest it has ever been, with most new members joining after visiting our website. Sadly, very few are joining from the Submarine Family, showing how difficult it is to recruit serving members.
Memorial Wall. This project has £180,000 committed by the Friends. With the proposed plans for development of the Gosport waterfront and the potential change to the boundaries of Fort Blockhouse, it is difficult to move planning forward. When the plans for the development of the waterfront are finalised it may be entirely appropriate that they include a submarine memorial and garden.
Fort Blockhouse Future. Negotiations between NMRN and local government are continuing with Friends’ Committee engaged as ‘conscience.’
The Online Book of Remembrance. OBOR continues to grow with over 16% of the 5,950 people listed now having short biographies, especially thanks to the small team of researchers and uploads. Visitor comments have vastly increased in the last year and now coming in at about 4 per week, with some excellent engagement from relatives - exactly what it was hoped this project would deliver. It is not obvious what caused this increase in public involvement - plaques drawing attention to OBOR, with QR codes, have been placed in a number of locations, including 5 in Faslane, and we are ready to
place more on memorials around the country. OBOR will be transferred to being hosted on the Friend's website we are applying for a grant from The Submarine Family to achieve this - which will improve its reliability and will then allow us to add some enhancements.
Mezzanine The project will now start next summer, as NMRN priority, and thus capacity, has been given to the move of the Royal Marines Museum into the Dockyard. £50,000 has been committed by Friends. Budget and deadlines are still to be approved but project based around: How does the Royal Navy Submarine Service train new submariners? What is it like to live and work on a modern submarine? How does a modern submarine work? We intend to commit substantially more funds when the project plan is formulated.
Conservation and Collections The NMRN team are continuing to work hard behind the scenes to recover services following the ransomware attack in December. Systems remain impacted and the team may be slower than usual to respond to enquiries.
Website. This year the website has been as busy as ever with contributions from members old and new and from authors and academics too. We completed the uploading of the Cold War interviews culminating with the Two Sirs Show (the discussion between Sir Mark and Sir Tim). Essential viewing! Finally, we are working on a book: “Deep Thoughts - a submariners time in rhyme” which we hope to have ready for sale by Christmas. With a forward by Sir Mark, poems by David Parry and cartoons by Australian submariner, Sandy Freeleagus this collaboration between us and Friends of the Holbrook Submarine Museum is something rather special which we hope many of you will buy! So special in fact that BAE have decided to sponsor it for which we are hugely grateful.
Committee. Peter Jeanneret, David Mincher and Tim Forth have stood down from the committee. Peter will continue to lead on the Online Book of Remembrance and is thanked for his sterling service.
Election of Committee Members. The following committee members were re-elected having been proposed by Matt Clark and seconded by Tim McLement:
Francis Dickinson, Phil Higgins, and Vince Dobbin.
There was one new committee member elected: Craig Fulton. He was proposed by Francis Dickinson and seconded by Tim McLement:
Adoption of the Accounts. The accounts for FY 2024/25 were briefed by Matt Clark.
Income this year was broadly similar to last year, once the expenses and income of the specific Kylesku memorial refurbishment project are excluded, with reductions in income from Christmas cards and bequests largely offset by a £2,500 increase in the grant made to us by the RNRMC for friends who are members through The Submarine Family, and members subscriptions remained steady at around £22,000. This is expected to increase next year as the new minimum donation level of £25 shows in the figures.
Because no new projects at the museum have reached the stage of needing funding in the last year, grants to the museum in the past year have been for minor items only. The only major expenditure has been the installation of the bronze plaque at the submariners’ memorial at the Embankment in London. Because we have not spent much this year, the overall balance has risen by £30,000 to nearly £280,000.
Of this, £180,000 is allocated to the successor to the memorial wall and currently £50,000 to the John Fieldhouse Building mezzanine project, which has been on hold while the NMRN is focussed on the new Royal Marines Museum, but is expected to need our support next year. Finally, another £10,000 is allocated to the development of the online book of remembrance and the plaques placed on submarine memorials around the country which draw attention to it.
Appointment of Auditors
Giles Fletcher has been the independent examiner of the accounts for many years following his time as treasurer of the society but has quite reasonably decided that this year would be his last in the role.
Peter Jeaneret, having now stood down as a trustee and deputy treasurer, after many years as treasurer himself is willing to take on the role of independent examiner. There is no-one who knows our finances as well at Peter, and now that he no longer involved in the management of the society, is, I suggest the best person to take on the role of independent examiner.
Appointment of Independent Examiner. Peter Jeaneret was appointed as the Independent Examiner for FY 2025/26
Any Other Business
HMS COURAGEOUS. Work continues largely as a result of diligent volunteer efforts. Currently NMRN lack the bandwidth for greater ownership and management, but aspirations remain.
ALLIANCE. There is £200K bid in the NMRN budget for Alliance next budget year, which will allow refurbishment if approved.
The date of 18 Sept 2026 was proposed for the next AGM.
Guest Speakers
Will Corbett then gave a fascinating talk on Admiral Sir Martin Dunbar-Nasmith VC, taking in early submarine adventures as well as famous exploits in the Dardanelles and Sea of Marmara in HMS E11 in 1915. The talk highlighted key exhibits in the Museum as well the qualities required of early RN submariners. Friends’ member Malcolm Avery has authored a novel (Hellespont, Through the Jaws of Death, by Byrne Avery) drawing on these stirring times.
Commander Oliver Morrow RN, who, as Teacher, gave a candid and informative account of the current state and activities of the Royal Navy Submarine Flotilla, including a clear picture of where we stand on perisher candidates, past, present, and future.
On Completion of the AGM there was a lively reception and buffet supper in the Museum.
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