Richard Gough (navy)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Richard Gough (born 1958) is an English writer, photographer and former Royal Navy Chief Petty officer.
He was the youngest weapon director in the Royal Navy, being promoted to Petty Officer (Missile) at 22 years of age and later promoted to Chief Petty Officer at 25.
Richard Gough joined the Royal Navy in 1975 at the age of sixteen. One of six children he was the first of his family to join the navy. In a career spanning seventeen years Richard travelled the world serving on a total of six Royal Navy warships. His service career led him to see combat in the Falklands conflict in 1982 where his ship, HMS Ardent (F184), was sunk during the battle of Falkland Sound on 21 May 1982. Other work included leading anti-piracy patrols off Singapore in 1983 as well as protecting British shipping from the Iran and Iraq Tanker wars in the Persian Gulf in 1988. In the summer of 1990 Richard fired (as Weapon Director) the first ever GWS-26 Vertical SeaWolf Anti-missile Missile from the Type 23 frigate HMS Norfolk as part of the weapons acceptance trials into the Royal Navy.
Richard left the Royal Navy of his own accord in 1991 as he was gay and this, at the time, was illegal under military law. Richard has published three books about his career in the Royal Navy: The Weapon Director, Kitbags & Queers: Growing up gay in the modern Royal Navy and No Ordinary Seaman. Kitbags & Queers is a definitive look at what the Royal Navy was like for closet gay sailors before the British military lifted its ban on gay personnel in 2000.
Richard now lives in the East End of London with his partner Iain. He now works in the city of London for a telecoms company in Bow Lane. Richard has started to carve out a career for himself as an amateur rugby player playing for a local club in Kent. Richard continues to campaign for gay rights and is a regular face at the Mardi Gras and gay rights marches.
