Admiral Sir Trevor Soar KCB OBE

 Commander-in-Chief Fleet - Allied Maritime Commander (Northwood)

 

As the Commander-in-Chief Fleet, a position he took up in June 2009, Trevor Soar has full command of all deployable Fleet units, including the Royal Marines.  He is responsible for providing ships, submarines, aircraft and Royal Marine units ready in all respects for any operations that the UK Government requires.   As a NATO Commander, he is the maritime advisor to the Joint Force Commander (Brunssum) and is tasked to ensure NATO maritime forces are ready to engage in joint and combined operations as required by the North Atlantic Council.  He is also directly responsible for elements of the Standing NATO Response Force.

 

Trevor Soar was born in Belper, Derbyshire, and went to Loughborough Grammar School in Leicestershire.  He joined the Royal Navy in 1975, and has served both in submarines and surface ships, commanding in every rank from Lieutenant to Commodore.

 

Qualifying as a submariner in 1978, he served in nuclear powered and conventional submarines before successfully completing the Submarine Commanding Officers’ Qualifying Course (The Perisher) in 1986.  He was then appointed in command of the conventional submarine HMS OCELOT until 1990, during which time the submarine deployed to the South Atlantic, Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean.  His first appointment to London was in the Naval Secretary’s Department as the Submarine Seaman Officers’ Appointer during which he was promoted to Commander in 1991.

 

Returning to sea in command of the nuclear powered Fleet submarine HMS TALENT he completed several operational Cold War patrols and was awarded the OBE in 1994.  After 2 years in the Fleet Operational Headquarters at Northwood he was appointed to the Ministry of Defence in early 1996 to the Directorate of Navy Plans and Programme.

 

Promoted to Captain in December 1996, he assumed command of the ASW frigate HMS CHATHAM in 1997, during which time the ship undertook a wide-ranging programme including an operational patrol in the Gulf.  He returned to Navy Plans in the MOD as Assistant Director Warfare and then as Captain Navy Plans in the new Directorate of Navy Resources and Plans.  Promoted to Commodore in September 2000 he was appointed as the Director of the Naval Staff responsible for pan-Navy policy across Defence.  He reverted to Captain to take command of HMS INVINCIBLE in December 2002 taking the ship from refit in Rosyth and working up the ship and air groups to meet the operational requirements of the Fleet Flagship.

 

On promotion to Rear Admiral in May 2004 he became Capability Manager (Precision Attack) as the Customer for Equipment Capability in the MOD responsible for a wide range of projects including CVF, JSF, T45, nuclear submarines and precision weapons across all 3 Services. Promoted to Vice Admiral in January 2007 became the first CofM (Fleet) and Board Member in Defence Equipment and Support, a post which also carries membership of the Admiralty Board, as Chief of Fleet Support.  He was appointed Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath in the 2009 New Years Honours List and promoted Admiral in June 2009.

 

Trevor & his wife Anne live in a converted mill in Staffordshire and their 2 sons are just starting on their own careers after university.  A Younger Brother of Trinity House, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, President of the Sea Cadet Corps TS WIZARD in London he is also a Freeman of the City of London.  In 2005 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering by Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh.  A keen supporter of Leicester Tigers and Navy Rugby, he is a Vice President of the RNRFU. All these activities continue to conflict with his aspiration to reduce his golf handicap.


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