Brian Burton resigns as trustee

Brian Burton has stepped down from being a director of the New Medway Steam Packet Company. This follows 17 years of work with the ship, and I want to thank Brian on behalf of myself and the society for all his work. Brian first heard about MQ at a GMB conference in Belfast in 20000, and along with Mick Laws and the GMB Union the first thing they sorted was the new funnel and fiddly, made by the apprentices at Appledore shipyard in 2002. Following this via their union contacts, they raised several thousand pounds for the ship. They, and the union, working with the MQ team of course, lobbied before our third application to the Heritage lottery fund, with a meeting with the Culture Secretary and a debate in Parliament, which led to our being awarded the money for the rebuild of the ship’s hull. In tandem with the rebuild, Brian and the team over a number of years of talks and meetings helped to secure the EU funding we received under the Heroes 2C project. This saw funds for 11 trainees/ apprentices at the workshop and also additional funds for the work in Bristol. I thank Brian again for his work for the ship. The above is only a brief account of his efforts, for which again we are very grateful, and wish Brian all the best.

John Kempton
​Chairman MQPS