Lieutenant Commander Tom Brydon has died in Dundee after a long and distinguished naval career. He was 77 and died peacefully at his home in Hazel Drive.
Born in Galashiels, he attended the local academy before joining the Royal Navy just short of his 15th birthday and training as a Boy Seaman Second Class on HMS Bruce, Crail. He headed south for more training at HMS Raleigh at Torpoint in Cornwall, then served in destroyers and submarine depot ships.
His naval career took a regal turn, as he joined the Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert in 1952.
He served on the Shaw Savill liner Gothic which took the Queen on her first Commonwealth cruise the following year and then joined the new Royal Yacht Britannia.
His eight years’ service saw him become the Queen’s coxswain and visits to all the Commonwealth countries with a seaboard with the bonus of circumnavigating the globe four times.
Lt Cdr Brydon visited Dundee, which was later to become home, when Britannia visited the city in 1957.
On leaving the royal yacht, he spent seven years in survey vessels in the Far East and the Pacific. After a couple of jobs ashore in royal dockyards, he was appointed an instructor at the Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.
While there he took part in three Tall Ships races and, as a RYA offshore qualified skipper, he sailed in the Sail Training Association schooners Sir Winston Churchill and the Malcolm Miller.
He went to Gibraltar to become master of the only operational diving-bell barge left in the world at the time. Then it was on to the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, Bulwark and finally Hermes.
He took command of HMS Kellington, a mine-sweeper in the Fishery Protection Squadron, based at Rosyth which patrolled the British coast.
Appointed Royal Navy staff officer HMS Camperdown Tay Division Royal Navy Reserve in 1977, he was awarded the MBE in 1982.
His naval career ended in 1983 after 36 years.
That year he became civil defence liaison officer for Dundee, advising and consulting the then Tayside Regional Council and Tayside Health Board.
He was very involved in dealing with the Muirton floods at Perth.
Retiral from HMS Camperdown did not mean an end to naval work — it gave him an opportunity to share his enthusiasm and knowledge with the local sea cadets.
He spent 15 years on the local sea cadet unit’s management committee, 11 as chairman.
Conscious of the importance of leaving a legacy for the youth of Dundee, he worked hard to oversee the move to the new HQ to East Camperdown Street after 30 years at HMS Camperdown.
He enjoyed skiing, caravanning and golf and was a member of Panmure Golf Club, Barry. He was also a member of Balgay Parish Church.
Lt Cdr Brydon is survived by his wife Eleanor and son and daughter Stuart and Fiona.