'Meritorious Voluntary Service' award goes to Ballymena man

Chief Petty Officer John Taylor, who has been a significant part of Ballymena Sea Cadets since 1997, was honoured to be presented with a Lord Lieutenant’s Certificate for ‘Meritorious Voluntary Service above and beyond the call of duty’ at a ceremony in Hillsborough Castle.

He was presented with the award by the Lord Lieutenant for Co Antrim, Mr David McCorkell KStJ DL.

John become the Commanding Officer of TS Waveney in 1999 and fulfilled this role until October 2023.

Having previously served with the Royal Navy Reserve as an engineer John also helped develop the syllabus for the Sea Cadets engineering courses and had been appointed Area Staff Officer for Engineering for the last 10 years.

INSTRUCTOR

While John has stepped down from his position as Commanding Officer he is still very much involved with the running of the Ballymena Sea Cadet unit, taking on the position of Unit Boats Officer, and also continues to be an instructor on NI District Engineering courses.

Petty Officer Lewis Allison, who has replaced John as the Officer in Charge of TS Waveney said: “Congratulations to John on an award well deserved. This recognises the fact that John has put his heart and soul into not only our unit, but the Sea Cadets as a whole, and we hope he is still a part of our unit for many years to come.”

John said of his award: There are so many dedicated volunteers across Northern Ireland, so to be chosen as a recipient is such an honour.”