5 Questions With: National Museum of the Royal Navy's Chief Executive Officer

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If you had a “day in the life” reality show about your job, what would be the most exciting episode?

I’d have to say the day that I watched LCT 7074 – a D Day tank landing craft weighing hundreds of tons that we’d acquired for the museum – finally land on a Portsmouth beach. After years of planning and effort, seeing it actually land on the shingle beach and make its way through Portsmouth – under the eyes of hundreds of spectators and the press – was something I’ll remember for years to come.

What’s particularly crazy is that, ultimately, whether we could actually land it or not all came down to the tides. You can invest millions, navigate a global pandemic, have a whole team on the ground and close a road and it still all comes down to the weather! We were lucky that day and it would have made a great episode.

What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned about human behaviour from your job? 

It’s easy to be cynical in today’s world, but the thing that’s impacted me the most by far is the everyday generosity of people. Generosity doesn’t always have a financial value but is essential for our whole sector to operate.

As you’d expect, we have strong connections with the extended Royal Navy family, and something that always astonishes and impresses me is how much people are willing to contribute to, and support, our work. As an institution, we are so lucky to be able to benefit from the generosity of time from our volunteers, donations from our supporters and the trust of those donating items to our collection – some of which have huge emotional significance for them. It never fails to inspire and motivate me.

What’s the most surprising connection you’ve made between seemingly unrelated objects in a collection?

One of the brilliant things about working in a museum is how the smallest, or seemingly most insignificant things, can take on huge meaning. We had a wonderful, but sadly neglected portrait of an ordinary midshipman trainee officer with no background or history in storage. After an extended research project – working alongside a local South Asian community group – we were able to identify the individual pictured. Amazingly, it transpires that the sailor in the picture was Midshipman Ahluwalia from India, training in the UK to go back to use these skills in the new Indian Navy. A fascinating story from a humble object that enabled us also to reconnect with his family.

If you could add any mundane modern object to your permanent collection for future generations, what would it be and why?

I’m not sure it’s entirely mundane but I’d choose one of the Navy’s current test drones or ‘uncrewed air system’ – The Peregrine Mark 4. Perhaps not quite a mundane object, but it’s a brilliant example of how The Royal Navy is constantly changing and evolving. I think this one object represents how we are currently witnessing one of the biggest technology revolutions the armed services has ever seen. Our museum is unusual in that our history hasn’t finished yet, and this object demonstrates exactly what the National Museum of the Royal Navy is here to show – the Navy’s story past, present and future.

If you could send a message in a bottle to future museum professionals 100 years from now, what advice would you include?

Now that’s a hard one. I guess it would have to be a short message if it were in a bottle. I think I’d probably say “We did our best in our times, good luck in yours. Be gentle with us!” It’s easy to unpick the practices of museums from years ago, but ultimately we’re all just trying our best and it would be nice to think the museums of the future will recognise that.