• THE Platinum Jubilee Medal will be awarded to many in HM Forces and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and to “front-line emergency workers”, commercial Merchant Navy seafarers not included.

Some 95 per cent of United Kingdom trade by volume is by sea and much of our islands’ imported energy arrives in ships.

The seven seas are unforgiving, danger ever-present, and sailors lose their lives every month.

Merchant seafarers, often unsung heroes in our nation’s story, are key workers on the front line at sea.

At the peak of the pandemic, one-fifth of the world’s merchant seafarers were stuck at sea, travel restrictions preventing crew changes.

Many containers are, even now, in the wrong place and it will take some time to resume normal commercial activity by sea.

The Merchant Navy always supports our nation in a crisis. Some 30,000 merchant seamen lost their lives in the Second World War (a death rate higher proportionately than that of the Armed Forces), merchant ships bringing supplies essential to victory.

The outstanding support of merchant seafarers in the Falklands War will again be saluted at this year’s 40th anniversary.

MPs signed an early day motion in 2002 deploring that most merchant sailors were not eligible for the Golden Jubilee Medal.

It’s time to change course – the nation should salute merchant seafarers with a Platinum Jubilee Medal in 2022.

MARK DICKINSON
(Gen Sec, Nautilus International)
COMMODORE MARTIN ATHERTON (Secretary, Trinity House)
LIEUTENANT COMMANDER LES CHAPMAN (Master, Honourable Company of Master Mariners)
REAR ADMIRAL JOHN LANG
COMMODORE RUSSELL BEST
CAPTAIN MIKE BARRITT
CAPTAIN GORDON WILSON
COLONEL PHILIP BARRY
COMMANDER NIGEL CHILCOTT
COMMANDER MIKE EVANS
COMMANDER DAI SOMERVILLE JONES
COMMANDER ALASTAIR WILSON
LIEUTENANT COLONEL IAN BERCHEM
LIEUTENANT COMMANDER JOHN BASTERFIELD
LIEUTENANT COMMANDER LESTER MAY
LIEUTENANT COMMANDER CHRISTOPHER SAMUEL (DefenceSynergia)