Naval officer takes Sultan salute at special ceremony

Commodore David Elford, the commandant of the Defence College of Technical Training, took the salute as guest of honour at a special ceremonial divisions ceremony at the Gosport base.

Cdre Elford inspected a guard of honour made from trainees of the Establishment, before a number of prizes, including swords, were presented to individuals for outstanding achievement.

The 52-year-old has spent the last three years as commandant of the Defence College of Technical Training, which trains engineers and technicians of all three services across five sites, including HMS Sultan.

Cdre Elford said: ‘It has been a huge honour for me to have commanded the largest military technical training organisation in the country and a particular privilege to have been invited to take the salute at the Royal Navy’s largest ceremonial divisions.

‘I have been extremely impressed by the amount of preparation and hard work and very proud of the standard of turnout and drill today.’

Cdre Elford was Navy Command’s chief air engineer for two-and-a-half years from July 2009 where he was heavily involved with the implementation of the recommendations emerging from the Haddon-Cave review of the circumstances surrounding the loss of Nimrod XV 230.

He joined the Lynx/Wildcat Project Team (the largest helicopter PT in the MOD) in March 2012 as the Team Leader, responsible for the through-life support and airworthiness of 4 marks of Lynx and 2 marks of Wildcat and for introducing the latter into service with the Army Air Corps and the Fleet Air Arm.

On promotion to Commodore in April 2013 he became the Commandant of the Defence College of Technical Training (DCTT).

During his successful and varied 30-year career at the Royal Navy, he has also been deployed off the east coast of the United States, the Gulf, India, the Far East and Australia.