UEA Students guarded Queen on Jubilee

You may have noticed them, two big grey Royal Navy patrol boats either side of the Royal Barge during the Thames Jubilee Pageant.

But I bet you didn’t know that the crew who lined the deck was made up of university students; nor that in fact, many of those students came from UEA.

How then, did a handful of UEA students end up providing the guard of honour to the Queen on such a momentous occasion? The students in question are members of the University Royal Naval Unit (URNU).

A proud day

This organisation has the sole purpose of educating students in seamanship, navigation, command, leadership and management. In under three years, students can gain qualifications including the NVQ Level 5 (Foundation degree level) in Leadership & Management and Royal Yachting Association certificates.

Partaking in the Jubilee celebrations was an incredibly proud moment for those UEA students. “It was an honour to represent both Great Britain and UEA to an international audience of millions during such a prestigious event, I’m grateful to the URNU for all the amazing opportunities it has given me, but this one really was fantastical” said Natasha Bailey a third year Law student.

Immediately after the Jubilee celebrations the URNU students took their dedicated patrol boat, HMS Trumpeter east to its ultimate summer destination, St Petersburg. Joining them were ships from Sussex, Northumbria and Yorkshire URNU’s, which presented the students with an opportunity to learn how to operate as part of a wider task group.

During the trip the students also developed their navigation and seamanship skills through a number of different exercises and manoeuvers. More importantly there was also the opportunity to spend plenty of time ashore in every Baltic state!

It was during these shore visits (48 in total) that the students met various local dignitaries, culminating in a reception hosted by the British High Commission in Russia, Estonia and Poland.

The URNU offers you every opportunity you could imagine and more and will be recruiting new students this year! Contact [email protected] or find us on Facebook by searching for ‘Cambridge URNU’.