Today, along with the Lord Mayor & Lady Mayoress of Portsmouth and several other Mayors, Mayoresses and Chairmen from around Hampshire, we were the guests of the Mayor & Mayoress of Gosport at their Civic day.
The Mayor of Gosport at Ceremonial Divisions
Meeting initially in the Council Chamber of Gosport Borough Council, we were taken by coach to HMS Sultan to witness their Ceremonial Divisions. When these were completed we were given a short tour of part of the facilities before going to the very interesting museum there.
We then had lunch in the Wardroom before rejoining the coach to go to the Falklands Gardens to join the Spirit of Portsmouth for a guided tour of Portsmouth Harbour. Two of the new Type 45 Destroyers, HMS Daring & HMS Dragon were in the harbour, while the 5th Type 45, HMS Defender, entered the harbour from sea trials as we were finishing our tour.
HMS Defender
To finish the day we walked the short distance to Holy Trinity Church for an organ recital on the newly restored organ, originally built in 1897 and incorporating pipework made in 1720, which was played by Georg Frideric Handel before coming to Gosport in 1748.
The Mayor of Havant's blog 