The SD Commanders Association

Special Duties List Commanders Association

www.sd-commanders.org.uk

The Special Duties List Commanders' Association was founded in 1990 and comprises a group of serving and retired naval officers of the Special Duties List of all branches, who during their distinguished careers achieved the rank of Commander. They all started their careers in the ranks, either as ordinary ratings or Artificers.

The Special Duties List of officers was originally established in 1956 and the first Commander was promoted 12 years later in 1967. The last promotions to the rank of Commander on the Special Duties List were in 1998, coinciding with the amalgamation of the three officer lists (Special Duties List, General List and Supplementary List) into one. Officers serving in the rank of Special Duties List Commander at the time the officer lists amalgamated were automatically transferred to the new combined General List and two have since achieved the rank of Captain, one being further promoted to the rank of Commodore. This would have been impossible under the former system whereby the ceiling rank was Commander.

The opportunity for promotion to officer from the ranks, and to achieve promotion to higher levels still exists, but the notion of a highly specialised branch officer such as was a Special Duties List officer has now been abandoned in favour of the new system.

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SD Commanders at Greenwich Naval College, 1995

(Click for larger image)

The SD Commanders Association Ladies Night Dinner planned for 25th April 2012 has been cancelled. Refunds will be made to those members who have applied to attend.

It is regrettable that, as time marches on and our members become older, attendance at our dinners each year has been declining. Apart from the well attended dinner held aboard HMS Victory in 2008, there are now only a small number of regular attendees each year, and even those are now diminishing in numbers. For this year I have received only a small number of applications, with even our regular attendees dropping off the list. Sadly it is not now economically possible to run the 2012 dinner with so few and has therefore regrettably been cancelled.

I cannot see that the situation will change in the future, so have decided that I shall arrange no more dinners on behalf of the Association. The Special Duties List Commanders' Association was founded in 1990 by Tony Moore. I have been the Chairman of the Association since 1991 and have organized 21 annual dinners, with venues in a wide variety of locations including RNC Greenwich, BRNC Dartmouth, HMS Victory, The Old Naval Academy and many other naval establishments. Latterly we have used the fine facilities offered by the Royal Naval Club and Royal Albert Yacht Club in Portsmouth. It is therefore with much regret that there are now insufficient Members now able to support these dinners and that they are to be discontinued.

Although I shall not be organizing any further dinners, it is my intention to continue to manage the Association on behalf of its members, and maintain its Membership List and Website. For many years yet the Association will therefore exist, albeit without any activities or organized events. If in the future any members require the services of the Association, I shall always be available to assist.

It has been a pleasure to have been your Chairman for the past 22 years and sincerely regret that we have reached the inevitable point where regular dinners are not possible to be held. I wish to thank all those Members who have supported the Association over the years and wish them good health into the future.

Kind regards,