Unit Chairman
Name: Patricia Gosling
Occupation: Retired
Sea Cadet Unit: St Albans
Pat Gosling and her husband Chief Petty Officer Ray Gosling have been closely involved with TS St. Albans for nearly 25 years. Ray is a uniformed instructor and Pat served first on the Parents’ and Supporters’ Committee and then on the Unit Management Committee. Since 1996 she has been the Unit Chairman. “My husband was a Sea Cadet as a boy,” she says. “Although when he was old enough he joined the Coldstream Guards. While in the Guards he still helped out at the local Sea Cadet unit so never lost touch with the Corps.”
With Ray closely involved, Pat thought she would volunteer to help out at the St. Albans Unit because she says it was better than sitting at home doing nothing. For many years Pat worked at the London Head Office of Marks & Spencer. She retired from full-time work in 1994.
In 2001 and 2002 the Unit won the Stephenson Trophy for being the best Unit in the Area. In 2002 and 2003 the Unit competed for the Canada Trophy coming third on the first attempt and runners-up a year later. They won the Commodore’s Cup and the Thomas Gray Memorial Trophy.
Awards aside, Pat says she gets just as much pleasure from seeing what cadets can achieve individually. Recently one of the young instructors, who had been a cadet in the Unit for a number of years, was accepted at Dartmouth Naval College to train to be an Officer. The Unit is very proud of him. His mother said that the years he had spent as a cadet had helped him to achieve his ambition of going into the Royal Navy to become an Officer.