Lieutenant Commander Tim Trounson MBE Royal Navy

Tim Trounson, as a 16 year old entry, was in my term and house at Dartmouth. A splendid chap in every way, although as I was an aviator and he a diver our paths did not cross very often during our careers. What follows is not an obituary as such, but is the entry he put in our 55th anniversary reunion handbook. I think he retired as a two and a half, but I suspect others may know better and be able to add to this. —

“Tim retired on Guy Fawkes Day 1977 joining the diving industry in Aberdeen as the General Manager of an American offshore diving contractor.
He also joined Tay Division of the RNR and had more commands having retired than he did in the RN. He then sold little yellow submarines for a couple of years, becoming an expat diving adviser for Sarawak Shell in 1982, accompanied by his wife Pat.
Since 1987, when they moved to Oman, he has been involved with HSE training in the oil and gas industry, firstly with the national oil exploration and production company, Petroleum Development Oman, and then with the National Training Institute, developing and conducting training courses for the oil and gas industry. He started his own business in 1995 with two Omanis as the Technical Training and Trading Company (commonly known as Tim Trounson’s Training Company). He ran this as a one man band for two years before being tempted back into NTI as the Business Development Manager to develop training business in Abu Dhabi and the Middle East. He travelled widely and visited the bazaars of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Syria.
Expat life was very amusing and frequently required some effort to do-it-yourself. Together with a Shell doctor chum, Don Mackenzie and his wife, Dr Rachel, Manic Depressive Promotions was formed, and together with Pat in association with McTroun Leisure (Cayman Islands [Holdings] Ltd), a member of the Psychosomatic Enterprises Group of Companies, a number of what we thought were frightfully amusing events were arranged. These generally centred around the exploits and travails of the 7th/11th Ras Al Hamra Light Horse [usually unmounted] when stationed in Singapore, Poona and Gibraltar.
Trafalgar Nights, Bicentennial Dinner to celebrate the McTroun Rising of
1793 on the Island of Rockall, Henley Regatta and others proved very popular.
Tim’s predilection for after dinner speaking was given full rein in this enterprise, fuelled by his considerable theatrical experience gained in both the Far and Middle East; he is famous for his performance in pantomime; not many can lay claim to the roles of Alderman Fitzwarren’s daughter’s maid, the Executioner’s silent assistant, the Wizard in the Wizard of Oz, Granny in Red Riding Hood, and a British Sailor singing in Dutch in Amsterdam.
He returned to the UK in the summer of 1999 to get some UK qualifications in Health, Safety and the Environment, to see the grandsons, and to bolster up the pension fund with a view to retiring sometime [not very successful].
Tim retired finally on 29 June 2007, whereupon both he and Pat contracted pneumonia on 30 June, and were rushed into Salisbury General Hospital; Pat was very ill indeed, but Tim escaped after a week. His involvement with the local community extended to the Chairmanship of the Community Partnership, but he has now given up most extraneous little jobs, although RNLI talks fill in the odd hour. Life is still full and never dull.
Retirement? Ha! Ha! Ha!”

It is regretted that Pat died 8 March 2011 and Tim on 25 December 2011.