Charity's chief steps down into retirement

Commodore Malcolm Williams CBE has retired from his position as chief executive of Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners’ Royal Benevolent Society.

Southsea-based Cdre Williams was presented with the Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society Admiral of the Fleet Sir Julian Oswald Award by the society’s chairman, Captain Nigel Palmer OBE.

Speaking at an afternoon event held at the charity’s Chichester headquarters, Cdre Williams said: ‘It has been a great privilege for me to have led and represented a charity that has played such an important role in alleviating need among retired and working fishermen, merchant seafarers, and their dependants, and has been doing so for the last 179 years.

‘In that time many aspects of our country and the way we live have changed greatly, and while the range of risks faced by those who earn their living at sea may have changed too, the basics have not.’

Captain Justin Osmond is now chief executive.