The Desmond Wettern Media Award
The prize for the top maritime media person of the year has been awarded to Michael Stammers: who until retirement earlier this year was Keeper of the Merseyside Maritime Museum for almost two decades.
He received the Desmond Wettern Media Award – an engraved ships decanter and a cheque for £1,000 – from Countess Mountbatten of Burma, President of the Maritime Foundation at a dinner held on board the MV Silver Sturgeon on 6th November. The Award was made in recognition of the outstanding for his writing, broadcasting and curatorial skills, culminating this year in his contribution to the Battle of the Atlantic anniversary commemoration.
Receiving the Award, Michael Stammers said: “I am thrilled to receive this prestigious Award and it is a great pat on the back for all the Merseyside team. At long last it appears that the messages about the importance of our maritime industries are now registering with government and the public at large.”
The Mountbatten Maritime Prize
The second award, The Mountbatten Maritime Prize, was made to Peter Padfield for his outstanding book “Maritime Power and the Struggle For Freedom, Naval Campaigns that Shaped the Modern World, 1788-1851” which relates Britain’s sea power to her position as a trading nation. Receiving the engraved silver Armada Plate, Peter Padfield said: “It is a great honour to be awarded the Mountbatten Prize and hope that this distinction may reinforce the message in my book that freedom and western values have not arrived by chance, but are rewards for our maritime past.”
The dinner was attended by senior members of the Royal Navy, the maritime industries and the media. The Guest Speaker was Commodore Ian Gibb, Elder Brother of Trinity House. He said: “After fifty years in the Shipping Industry, it gave him particular pleasure in attending and participating in the Awards of such value and significance rewarding, as it does, the material contribution of our winners this year.”
[divider top_link=”false” autosize=”true”]
Notes to Editors:
- A professional maritime museum curator, Michael Stammers worked for the last twenty years as Director of the Merseyside Maritime Museum.– more details from Steven Guy on 0151 478 4611
- Peter Padfield works as an author – more details from Samantha Evans at John Murray on 020 7873 6000.
- The Awards are made annually in memory of the late Desmond Wettern, writer on maritime affairs for over thirty years. They commemorate his single minded dedication to the belief that the United Kingdom’s economic wellbeing and security are inextricably bound up with the sea and to encourage publicists and writers to drawn attention to this linkage.
- The sponsors of the Awards include the Telegraph Group, the Swire Group, BAE Systems, P&O Nedlloyd, the Chamber of Shipping, the George John Livanos Trust and the Wettern Trust.
- For further information, please call Anthony Harvey, Secretary, The Maritime Foundation on 020 7928 8100 / sec@bmcf.org.uk or Sue Lloyd in the Defence Press Office on 020 7218 3258 / press@dgics.mod.uk
- The web-sites and photographs can be found at www.mod.uk and www.bmcf.org.uk.