Naval Career
He was promoted to midshipman on 1 January 1973, and acting sub-lieutenant on 1 January 1975. Upon leaving Durham he completed his initial training at the Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth, and was posted to HMS Aurora, a Plymouth-based frigate. He was promoted to Lieutenant 10 months early, on 1 March 1977.
In 1978 he was attached to the training establishment HMS Vernon and in the next year served on the minesweeper HMS Pollington.
Laurence served briefly as Navigating Officer of the Royal Yacht HMY Britannia, and 1980 to 1982 in the same role on the destroyer HMS Sheffield. He took command of the patrol boat HMS Cygnet off Northern Ireland in 1982, as part of the patrols for IRA gun-runners.
After attending HMS Dryad for a Principal Warfare Officer course, Laurence was promoted to Lieutenant Commander (1 March 1985), and posted to the frigate HMS Alacrity. He attended the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Tactics Course (RANTACCS) at HMAS Watson, Sydney in March 1986 during which he was notified of his first staff appointment commencing April 1986 as Equerry to The Queen. He was promoted to Commander on 31 December 1988.
In October 1989 he was posted to the new frigate HMS Boxer, and took over as Commanding Officer on 30 January 1990, at the age of 34.
Between 1992 and 1994 Laurence was with the naval staff in the Ministry of Defence, London. On 16 May 1994 he was appointed the first Military Assistant to the Secretary of State for Defence (Malcolm Rifkind), to provide military advice in his private office.
Laurence was promoted to Captain on 30 June 1995, and until 1996 was in command of the frigate HMS Cumberland. In May 1996 the ship was back from the Adriatic, where HMS Cumberland served in the NATO-led IFOR. On 27 August 1996 Laurence took command of the frigate HMS Montrose, and was captain of Plymouth-based F6, a squadron of five frigates. Until October 1996 the ship was in the South Atlantic, on Falkland Islands patrol.
From July 1997 he was back in the Ministry of Defence, initially on the Naval Staff and then from June 1998, on promotion to Commodore, as a member of the Implementation Team for the 1998 Strategic Defence Review.
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