CBF handover at The Tower

Commodore Tom Guy, one of the longest serving Commander British Forces in Gibraltar’s history, sailed from the Rock on Friday at the end of a four-year stint in the post.

His successor, Commodore Tim Davey, formally took command at The Tower as Commodore Guy and his wife Katie sailed away on their yacht, Flower of Caithness, to the sound of bagpipes.

Military and civilian staff lined the quayside to bid farewell to the couple, who had made Gibraltar their home since arriving in 2022.

Commodore Guy, the longest-serving CBF since 1844, acknowledged he was “quite sad to be leaving”.

He is also retiring from the Royal Navy and his plan now is to sail the yacht from Gibraltar and “eventually end up back in the UK”.

The new CBF, Commodore Davey, is a veteran of navy mine countermeasures and was welcomed with a quayside salute fired by the Royal Gibraltar Regiment.

He said his welcome to Gibraltar had been warm, adding that he will be working with “a brilliant team” both inside and outside HQ British Forces.

For Commodore Davey, his first days in the new role will be “all about learning and understanding”.

“There's a fantastic team here that have got incredible knowledge and experience working in the headquarters and working, of course, with the Government of Gibraltar and the people of Gibraltar,” he said.

“For me, it's about learning, particularly in those first three to six months, and understanding how I can hopefully add some value to the amazing team that already work here.”

Commodore Davey’s background is as a warfare officer, where he spent the first half of his career at sea.

From there, he worked at the Ministry of Defence and in an organisation that looked after the Royal Navy’s warfighting tactics and doctrine.

“Then most recently, I was the commanding officer of HMS Collingwood, which is the largest Royal Navy training establishment, which principally looks after all of our sailors and officers who are conducting their warfare and weapon engineer training,” he said.

“And that was a great job, great fun, gave me lots of experience of things like infrastructure, which is a challenge in many areas across defence.”

“I've got some knowledge and experience to bring to the role.”

“But as I said, most importantly, it's the other people that I'm going to learn from here.”