One of the first decisions made by the new Second Sea Lord, Vice Admiral James Burnell-Nugent, on his appointment at the end of January was to create the post Command Warrant Officer (CWO), taken up by WO Eddie Seaborne, who started his new job on the same day as his boss.

“How I see this job evolving is really as a two-way street,” said Admiral Burnell-Nugent.

“The CWO will act as a sort of lightning conductor between ship’s companies and RM other ranks and all the other men and women serving, wherever they are, ashore or afloat, back to me.

“At the moment he can do that as he is dual-hatted as a member of the Second Sea Lord Personnel Liaison Team, so he gets around establishments anyway, but the idea is that he also gets very closely alongside WO Baz Cook, the people pillar champion, and the Royal Marines counterpart, Corps RSM WO1 RSM George Forster.

“So the three of them – all very experienced warrant officers – will provide a very important mechanism to me.

“Coming the other way, where I hope the CWO will prove particularly useful, is when my staff here are working on projects such as Topmast – really important projects for the personnel policies and career structures for the future.

“Someone like Eddie Seaborne, with a huge amount of experience in the front line, and a lot of contemporaries and contacts out there, can act as something of a litmus paper for new ideas and tell me – give it to me straight: ‘I’m sorry, sir, this scheme simply will not work’, or such-and-such a scheme will work really well.

“He will be a really important sounding board as to the sort of thing that people are looking for in the future and whether they are likely to work or not.

Eddie (46) has more than 30 years’ service. He joined HMS Ganges as a Junior Seaman direct from school in 1972, and on completion of training joined HMS Hampshire from 1973-75, and during the next ten years he served on board HM ships Plymouth, Juno and Manchester, while also completing his Gunnery qualifying courses to the rank of Petty Officer Missileman.

On promotion to Chief Petty Officer, Eddie took HMS Edinburgh from the builders yard at Cammel Laird and spent three years on work-up trials and Gulf deployment. He also served in sister Type 42 destroyers HMS Nottingham and HMS Southampton.

During the Gulf War in 19911-92 he was attached to the 2nd Mine Countermeasures Squadron as an AWW advisor and close range instructor.
The following year saw him join Naval Party 1042, serving with the United Nations in Cambodia, for which he was awarded an MBE.

On return he was promoted to Warrant Officer, and has since served in HMS Ark Royal, at Plymouth and at HMS Excellent.

His last appointment prior to joining the Second Sea Lord’s office was as an instructor at the Principal Warfare Officer Section.

Eddie is married to Marina, and has two daughters. He is a keen sportsman, particularly long-distance running and swimming, and he raises considerable sums of money for charity.