Rear Admiral Richard Kelshall is used to being a trailblazer. The first Admiral in the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force was also the first Trinidadian to become a senior officer after starting as a sea cadet.

He began his maritime career at Britannia Royal Naval College (BRNC) Dartmouth in 1963, and in the subsequent 40 years, since the formation of the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force, all cadets have been sent there to be trained and commissioned as 2nd Lieutenants, midshipmen and sub lieutenants.

Working his way through the ranks, Admiral Kelshall has held a number of high-profile and significant positions, including Naval Attache in London and Special Advisor to the National Security Council Office of the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago.

Although now supposed to be retired, he is still chairman of Caribbean Marine and Defence, and makes regular trips to the UK – his most recent visit was to deliver a speech for Intersec, a conference promoting security and anti-terrorism, and to take part in talks with Fleet Support Ltd (FSL) in Portsmouth, during which he took time out to talk to Navy News.

Admiral Kelshall said that the links between the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard and the Royal Navy are as strong as they have ever been, though the chances to actually work together have reduced in recent years.

By working in London and training in the UK, he established contacts with Britain that still exist today – one of his fellow students at Dartmouth was former First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Nigel Essenhigh.

Admiral Kelshall is the first to admit he has had an unusually diverse career, and has dealt with everything from sea duty to putting down revolutions.

Under his command, the unit was given a national award – another first in the country’s history.

Said Admiral Kelshall: “You name it, and I’ve been through it.

“Becoming the country’s first admiral was a great achievement. It’s a major step to have happened for a small navy, as well as being the first cadet to go all the way through.”

The original role of the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard was to enable the country to establish its own defence unit, and therefore maintain its own protection. It is based upon the same ranks, traditions and principles as the Royal Navy.

Admiral Kelshall said: “We only call it a Coast Guard because of its size. We didn’t want to seem ostentatious and call it a navy, because we only started off with launches. It is a microcosm of the Royal Navy.

“The requirement by the Foreign Office was to be able to maintain our own defence and protection, and that is why we started with a regiment and marine section.”

“Over the years it has grown out of its ceremonial function into a very important and very dangerous operational unit, especially with drug smuggling.”

The fleet has grown considerably over the years and is now a significant outfit, including two Swedish patrol boats and four coastal patrol crafts. The country also bought the Island-class offshore patrol vessel HMS Orkney, now TTS Nelson, from the Royal Navy in December 2000.

Besides its defence role, the Coast Guard has a humanitarian function, protecting marine installations and combating the problem of drug-smuggling.

Although the role of providing support following a natural disaster has not been regularly tested - Trinidad has not been hit by a hurricane in decades - many of the smaller Caribbean islands are affected by storm damage, and the Coast Guard is ready to play a valuable role in providing emergency relief for these islands.

One of the most important functions that the Coast Guard now has is combating the shipment of illegal drugs.

Admiral Kelshall said: “The constant danger now, which is a great change from when I joined, is the sector of drug-smuggling and all that goes with it, like violence.

“It’s a major job for the Coast Guard to stop this, and a big part of my tour of command became dealing with it. It changed the whole aspect of the Coast Guard.”

Trinidad itself does not have a major drugs problem, but its waters serve as a transhipment point for the drugs coming in from countries in Central America. Much is transported out to Europe and the USA, so Trinidad is a bottleneck for the problem, with an estimated hundreds of tonnes of drugs being carried through the area.

The Coast Guard work closely with the Royal Navy to stem this flow, and the work carried out by ships such as Type 23 frigate HMS Grafton indicates that by dealing with the problem at the point of shipment the amount of drugs leaving the area can be significantly reduced.

HMS Grafton, which returned to Portsmouth late last year, spent more than four months patrolling the central and eastern Caribbean as part of the international effort to stem the flow of illegal drugs. During this time she prevented hundreds of millions of dollars worth of drugs from reaching their intended destination.

Admiral Kelshall would like to see the Royal Navy presence in the Caribbean strengthened as a way of deterring drug-smugglers and countering the problem.

He said: “When you’re out there in the Caribbean and you see a Royal Navy ship, it really boosts your confidence. Big Brother is around, keeping a watchful eye – that’s the way we’ve always seen it.”

The West Indies Squadron maintenance base used to play an essential part in nurturing contact between the countries, because any Royal Navy ship needing repairs or upkeep would dock there. This meant that the crew would be ashore for anything up to two months at a time.

Although this constant contact has now gone, the links between the nations remain strong.

Trinidad and Tobago continues to send all cadets to Dartmouth – four cadets are there at the moment – so they all start off with a Royal Navy background, ensuring the links between the two forces will not be forgotten.

High achievement is not confined to the Admiral in the Kelshall family.

Eldest daughter Candyce is Commercial Attache at the Trinidad and Tobago High Commission in London, and is a published military historian and poet who is currently reading for her Doctorate.

Second daughter Tricia is a successful professional singer with a UK number one dance hit to her name with Way Out West, and she starred in the film Flight of the Ibis.

Meanwhile, Admiral Kelshall’s son, Jason Kelshall, also graduated from Dartmouth, setting another new record in the process – they were the first father and son from Trinidad and Tobago to both graduate from the college.

Jason is currently a lieutenant in the Coast Guard, and most recently commanded a naval special operations unit.