SPECIAL RECOGNITION’ AWARD FOR WARSHIPS IFR EDITOR

The Editor of this magazine received a Special Recognition Award at the Desmond Wettern Media Awards 2007 in London last month (November). Iain Ballantyne, who has been at the helm of ‘WARSHIPS International Fleet Review’ since its establishment in 1998, received the award - a magnificent crystal engraved ship’s port decanter - for his ‘consistent and unwavering contribution to raising maritime awareness over the years’. Aside from conceiving and taking ‘WARSHIPS IFR’ from a quarterly to a monthly publication, establishing it as the UK’s (if not the world’s) foremost high street naval news magazine, Iain Ballantyne has written several naval history books. He has also written scripts for maritime-related productions created by London based multi-media company Grosvenor Vision and, in the past, has been a newspaper and news agency defence correspondent. In his 25-year career as a journalist, 17 of them working in the Defence field, Iain has written on naval and military matters for publications as varied as ‘The Naval Architect’,  ‘The Western Morning News’, ‘FOCUS’ (now ‘BBC FOCUS’), ‘Maxim’ and ‘ECDIS Today’ (for the UK Hydrographic Office).

However, it was for his work over the past ten years as Editor of WARSHIPS IFR that Iain received the Special Recognition Award. The Royal Navy’s Commander-in-Chief Fleet, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope presented it to him during a glittering dinner aboard the MV Silver Sturgeon on the Thames. Iain said afterwards: “It was fantastic, and also humbling, to have my hard work recognised by my peers, and especially to have the award presented by Admiral Stanhope. He was the captain of the frigate HMS London, when I sailed in her to the Soviet Union in 1991, while working as Defence Reporter of the Evening Herald, Plymouth.”  HPC Publishing Managing Director Derek Knoll and Associate Editor, Captain Peter Hore RN (Retd), were at the dinner to see Iain receive his award. “It is superb Iain’s hard work on the magazine - which we are rightly proud of - has been recognised,” said Mr. Knoll. “There is nothing else that comes close in its field as far as we are concerned. The Royal Navy is a very important organisation and the maritime community as a whole in the UK is vital to the nation’s well-being. We are honoured that Iain and ‘WARSHIPS IFR’ have been thought worthy of such a fine award.” Iain Ballantyne is also the Editor of HPC Publishing’s ‘Guide to the Royal Navy’, which was published in its fourth edition on November 30. Among the other publications Iain has edited for HPC Publishing are ‘Submarine 1901 - 2001’ and ‘Guide to the US Navy 2005’. The awards dinner was attended by the cream of the UK’s maritime media community and those present included many serving and retired senior naval officers, including Lord West of Spithead, a recent First Sea Lord, who also warmly congratulated Iain on his award. The Desmond Wettern Awards are the UK’s leading awards in the maritime field, aiming to salute those working in print and TV journalism, filmmaking and television as well as maritime/naval literature, in order to raise awareness of the enduring importance of the sea to Britain. They are run by the British Maritime Charitable Foundation, which was set up in the early 1980s by the late Desmond Wettern, in conjunction with senior retired naval officers, shipowners and leading figures in the UK’s financial sector. Today the Maritime Foundation works constantly to raise awareness of the enduring importance of the maritime sector to the UK. Its President is the Countess Mountbatten of Burma, daughter of Lord Louis Mountbatten, the legendary WW2 destroyer captain and admiral who was also the last viceroy of India and a post-war First Sea Lord. Countess Mountbatten has a naval background too, during WW2 serving in the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS), including a spell as an officer in Supreme Allied Command, South East Asia. Countess Mountbatten gave a speech at the awards dinner, in which she underscored the need for the maritime sector to maintain a high profile. Desmond Wettern was the Daily Telegraph’s Naval Correspondent and his widow, Gillian, gave a speech in which she thanked those present and all who had made the awards such a success.

“In 1994, a small group of us gathered together for a dinner in the Naval College at Greenwich to launch Desmond’s media award,” she said. “Who would have thought that more than 12 years later we would have such a glittering assembled company of distinguished guests spread right across the maritime field. Desmond was passionate about our maritime affairs and spent a lifetime writing about the Royal Navy - for him it wasn’t a job, it was a way of life. He was Fleet Street’s last Naval Correspondent and when he died 16 years ago, the news of his death was signalled by the Ministry of Defence to all Her Majesty’s Ships and Establishments. So, today I am very proud that we have these Media Awards in his memory. He would, in his words, be ‘very chuffed’ by all this - he loved a good party.” The prize for the top maritime media person of the year was awarded to Brian Lavery, Curator Emeritus at the National Maritime Museum, who received the Desmond Wettern Media Award. The Mountbatten Maritime Literary Prize was awarded to Andrew Welch for his book ‘The Royal Navy in the Cod Wars’. The best Maritime Film and Documentary Prize was  presented to Crispin Sadler for his television documentary series ‘Deep Wreck Mysteries’.   Special Recognition Awards were also presented to: Michael Critchley, Maritime Books; Richard Hargreaves, Navy News; Professor Andrew Lambert of Kings College, London and Andrew Linington, Head of Communications at NAUTILUS UK. The guest speaker was Commodore Rajan Vir IN and Lord Strathcona, Chairman of the Maritime Foundation, presided at the dinner.

 

Editor Iain Ballantyne with his award

Photo: WARSHIPS IFR Editor Iain Ballantyne with his award.
Image: Dennis Andrews.