Princess Anne is guest of honour at HMS Sultan as training establishment celebrates its 70th anniversary

The Princess Royal paid a special visit to HMS Sultan as guest of honour at its 70th Anniversary Ceremonial Divisions, marking seven decades of the Royal Navy's foremost centre of professional engineering.

In addition to taking the salute from officers and ratings on parade at the Gosport training facility, the princess presented awards and prizes recognising outstanding academic achievement, engineering excellence and exemplary service.

Escorted by Captain Mark Hamilton, the Commanding Officer of HMS Sultan, Princess Anne inspected the Guard of Honour before reviewing HM Royal Marines Band Lympstone, who provided the musical accompaniment throughout the event.

Sultan is home to the Marine Engineering Training Group, the Royal Naval Air Engineering and Survival Equipment School, and the Nuclear Department, together delivering over 320 courses to more than 7,700 trainees from across the UK Armed Forces, NATO and international partners every year.

Captain Mark Hamilton said: “It was our very great honour to welcome Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal to Sultan today, and to mark seventy years of this extraordinary establishment.

“The expertise trained here spans the full breadth of naval engineering, from the Marine Engineers who keep our fleet at sea, to the Air Engineering and Survival Equipment technicians on whom our people's lives depend. As we look ahead, we are focused on transforming how we deliver that training, expanding our use of simulated and emulated environments and growing our work with NATO allies and partner nations.

“Agility will be central to how we operate in the years ahead, as the Naval Service becomes more complex and more demanding. And as new platforms arrive under a hybrid Navy, Sultan will remain what it has always been, the engineering heartbeat of the Naval Service, powering naval engineering for generations to come."

Lieutenant Commander Bart Allen-West was presented with a Long Service & Good Conduct Second Bar by Her Royal Highness during the ceremony.

He said: "It is a massive honour to receive this award from Her Royal Highness and a privilege to be part of HMS Sultan's 70th birthday celebrations. Having joined the Royal Navy in 1990, this medal is recognition not only of my long service and good conduct, but also of the sacrifice and unwavering support of my family throughout my career."

Awards presented by The Princess Royal

• Wider Service Medal, to Engineering Technician (Marine Engineer) Gugulethu Bhebe.
• Wider Service Medal, to Engineering Technician (Marine Engineer) Sophie Marriott.
• Wider Service Medal, to Engineering Technician (Marine Engineer) Henry Relph.
• Silver Valedictory Certificate, to Petty Officer Raymond Hamley.
• Long Service & Good Conduct Second Bar, to Lieutenant Commander Bart Allen-West.

HMS Sultan was commissioned on 1 June 1956, the day after the closure of HMS Siskin, and has grown from its origins as the Mechanical Training Course into one of Defence's most significant engineering training establishments.

Today, HMS Sultan is home to the Marine Engineering Training Group (METG) and the Royal Naval Air Engineering and Survival Equipment School (RNAESS), part of the Defence School of Aeronautical Engineering.

Together they deliver more than 320 courses to more than 7,700 trainees annually from the Royal Navy, British Army, Royal Air Force, Royal Fleet Auxiliary and international partners including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, Saudi Arabia and Brazil.

Princess Anne, who holds high-ranking honorary military titles, has a longstanding association with HMS Sultan.

In February 1992 she visited the establishment to observe the integration of Wrens alongside male counterparts. In May 2006 she attended the Golden Jubilee celebrations marking HMS Sultan's 50th anniversary.

She visited again in October 2009 in her capacity as Commodore-in-Chief Portsmouth, and returned in October 2013 to take the salute at a Passing Out Parade.