Eric Thompson, MBE MSc CEng RN (Rtd) DL – RN Submarine Service
Thu, Feb 28th 2019 at 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Ex-RN Commodore and freelance management consultant, Eric Thompson, will address the Club on the Royal Naval Submarine Service
H&R: Paul Begley & Ian Carrol
VoT: Hugh Graham
The guest speaker at tonight's meeting of the Rotary Club of Motherwell and Wishaw was Eric Thompson, MBE MSc CEng RN (Rtd), who was born and educated in Coatbridge.
After leaving school, he won a scholarship to Britannia Royal Naval College, at Dartmouth, to train for his chosen career as a naval officer. After winning his Commission, having graduated as an Electrical Engineer, Eric volunteered for submarine service. He served in five submarines during the Cold War, always furthering his education, taking a post-graduate diploma in Nuclear Reactor Technology and a masters degree in Acoustics at Heriot-Watt University.
The pinnacle of Eric’s career came when he was promoted to Commodore, commanding Britain's premier submarine base, Faslane, on the Clyde.
He retired in 1998, just after the Cold War ended, and, in civilian life, he has been a freelance management consultant, spent eight years as the elected, Liberal Democrat, Councillor for Helensburgh East in Argyll & Bute Council, also serving on the Strathclyde Police Board and the Lomond & Argyll Primary Care NHS Trust.
Eric is a Past President of the prestigious Bridgeton Burns Club, current chairman of the Helensburgh Writers' Workshop and an active member of the Scottish Association of Writers. Nowadays, he concentrates on writing, speaking, arguing and trying to make people laugh. He has published three books of comic verse and his autobiography, 'On Her Majesty's Nuclear Service'. He is currently working on 'Stop Snorting', an anthology of submarine anecdotes; a theatrical work on Robert Burns; and a novel, 'Four Women and a Torpedo'.
After his presentation, Eric responded to the questions put to him by members and Past President Hugh Graham proposed the vote of thanks.
The winner of the weekly bonus ball was Rotarian Callan Dick.'What We Do' Main Pages:
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