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The History of Bristol
URNU
General History
Bristol University RN Unit was formed on 1 August 1986. The first Officer-in-Charge was Lt Cdr J H Dinnin, previous RN Staff Officer at HMS Flying Fox, the RNR Sea Training Centre in Bristol. Initially no training ship was available to be allocated to the Unit and sea training was undertaken on a variety of platforms on an opportunity basis. Prominent amongst these were the RN's chartered navigation training ship MV Northella, the RNR Fleet Minesweeper HMS Itchen and the Marine Society's vessel, the MV Jonas Hanaway. In 1988 HMS Dasherwas made available and was commissioned as Bristol URNU's Training Ship on 8 June 1988.
During the early years the Unit's established strength was 30 Midshipmen, this being increased to its present level of 51 Midshipmen in the early 1990s.
I n March 1998 Lt Susanne Moore RN was appointed as Officer-in-Charge of the Unit and Commanding Officer of HMS Dasher, thereby becoming, jointly with Lt Mel Rees RN (who was appointed OiC of Wales URNU and CO of HMS Express), the first female RN officers to be appointed to command one of Her Majesty's Ships.
In January 2003 HMS Dasher was reassigned to the RN's newly formed Cyprus Squadron and Bristol URNU was once again without a training ship. Summer deployments in 2003 were undertaken onboard the MV Loyal Supporter, a civilian owned, ex-RN Fleet Tender under short term charter to the RN. In August 2003, HMS Trumpeter, recently released from the Gibraltar Squadron, was assigned to Bristol URNU as its new Tender.
In September 2010 HMS Trumpeter was reassigned to Cambridge URNU and HMS Raider was assigned to Bristol. At the same time HMS Raider was re-based from Portsmouth to Plymouth.
OiCs of Bristol URNU
Officer-in-Charge
Date of Appointment
Date of Supercession
Lt Cdr John Dinnin RN
August 1986
August 1989
Lt Cdr Adam Peters RN
August 1989
January 1991
Lt James Morse RN
January 1991
October 1992
Lt Cdr Gareth McHale RN
October 1992
August 1994
Lt Jim Davison RN
August 1994
September 1996
Lt Alex Bark RN
October 1996
March 1998
Lt Susanne Moore RN
March 1998
September 1999
Lt Dean Bassett RN
September 1999
May 2001
Lt Chris Euden RN
May 2001
January 2003
Lt David Crowe RN
January 2003
May 2005
Lt Andy Smith RN
May 2005
March 2007
Lt Will King RN
March 2007
July 2009
Lt Richard Gray RN
July 2009
October 2011
Lt Charlie Collins RN
October 2011