CDR Dave Burrell
Senior British Officer
Dave Burrell was born in Kettering in 1977 and grew up in the East Midlands, before attending the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne where he read for a Masters in Naval Architecture. Specialising in warship technology sparked an interest in joining the Royal Navy, and in particular the submarine service, and he joined BRNC Dartmouth in 2000.
He joined his first submarine, HMS Vengeance in 2003, and conducted four deterrent patrols prior to attending AWC in 2007. He then served on HMS Tireless as the TSO, undertaking operations before seeing her through RAMP, regeneration and East of Suez deployment in 2010.
Selected to represent the submarine service on the staff at BRNC Dartmouth, Dave took charge of the Navigation department during a rewarding shore appointment, overseeing significant change in the training of future officers.
Following this appointment, he rejoined Tireless in the same post he had vacated 20 months prior, and shortly after his return was selected for SMCC. Following successful completion of ‘Perisher’ in 2013 he conducted National Tasking as a Command Rider before extremely rewarding XO appointments on Triumph and Talent, conducting further periods of national tasking amongst varied and challenging programmes. In 2015 he moved inboard but remained heavily focused on SSN operations as he took on the role of SSN at Fleet Ops. Selected for promotion and Command, he had the privilege of Commanding HMS Trenchant through a busy, operationally focused 28 months, including breaking through the ice at the North Pole, the only UK submarine to do so in the last 14 years.
Post Command, there was a return to the training world as the Officer Commanding the Submarine School, maintaining essential training output during the COVID pandemic.