M J PearceMike Pearce served with the Ministry of Defence (Navy) for nearly 40 years and was on the staff of the Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth for 12 years. Closely involved with the Royal Navy throughout his career, he held management and planning oles within many different fields of MoD activity and on numerous projects for the Royal Navy in London, Hampshire and at the Naval Base at Devonport in addition to BRNC. As a naval historian, he has been a trustee of the Britannia Museum since its inception in 2008 and is a series editor for the Britannia Naval Histories of World War II; in 2012 he co-authored, with Dr Richard Porter, the introduction to Fight for the Fjords, and in 2013 wrote the introduction to Between Hostile Shores, Mediterranean Convoy Battles 1941-42, both in the series. Following the series re-launch in 2019, he wrote the introduction to Confronting Italy, Mediterranean Surface Actions in 1940. His particular area of expertise is the period 1860-1960 and he continues to undertake research, both on behalf of the Trust and in his own areas of interest. James Burnell-Nugent joined the Royal Navy at Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, in 1971 after the award of an Honours Degree in Mathematics at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal while under naval general training and the Admiral Sir Max Horton Prize for excellence in submarine training. He commanded in every rank from Lieutenant to Admiral. After the "Perisher" qualifying course for submarine commanding officers, his first command was the conventional submarine HMS Olympus 1979-80. He then served on the staff at Dartmouth, teaching leadership, navigation and seamanship. This was followed, as a Lieutenant Commander, by command of the nuclear powered submarine HMS Conqueror 1984-86, carrying out many Cold War patrols hunting down Soviet ballistic missile submarines. After time in the MoD and the Joint Service Defence College, he had the triple command of the 2nd Frigate Squadron, the frigate HMS Brilliant and Captain Initial Sea Training 1992-93. As a Rear Admiral, Commander UK Maritime Forces 2001-02, he was in command of a large deployed RN Task Group at the time of the New York Twin Towers attack by Al Qaeda. Having opened his Headquarters alongside the US Navy in Bahrain, this then evolved into him being the Maritime Commander of the UK Joint Force and the Deputy Maritime Commander of the Coalition for the early stages of the campaign Read More Read Less