Senior Officers and Company Staff

Master

Captain Graham Pepper, Master Mariner, FNI, was born into a Royal Navy family and has spent all his working life in the merchant shipping industry. Having trained at the Reardon Smith Nautical College in Cardiff, he was indentured to the Shaw Savill & Albion Company of London staying with them (and their parent company, Furness Withy) for over 35 years until the end of 2000. Initially serving in refrigerated cargo ships trading from the United Kingdom to New Zealand and Australia, he also served in passenger ships, mini bulk carriers and container ships. Sea service was interspersed with secondment to shore-based appointments in the West Indies, New Zealand and London before finally swallowing the anchor and coming ashore in 1986.

An appointment as Furness Withy’s Marine Services Manager saw Captain Pepper gain experience in the completely new field to him of managing the department sourcing and purchasing all supplies for Furness Withy ships. Additionally, the job included working with the Soviet company, CTC Cruises, where Furness Withy provided stores and catering advice as well as on-board services for passengers such as shops, casino, bar management, photography and hairdressing. It was a fascinating time and involved sailing in Soviet cruise ships as well as visiting the collapsing Soviet Union several times in the late 1980s. In 1992, he went back to marine operations with Furness Withy with appointments in Liverpool, Felixstowe and London, the last of which was as Operations Manager for a joint-venture refrigerated shipping company. Unfortunately, this was terminated when one of the partners withdrew and Captain Pepper became a self-employed marine consultant specialising in quality management systems.An invitation to revise a standard text book for the Merchant Navy led to the publication of the latest edition of “Thomas’ Stowage”, a guide to the stowage of cargo in ships, in 2008 and he is now working on the next revision. Captain Pepper is a director of Dole (UK) Ltd, a Younger Brother of Trinity House and a Fellow of the Nautical Institute. He has been a Freeman of the Honourable Company since 1980 and a Liveryman since 1986, joining the Court in the following year. Elected a Warden in 1992, he served as Master for 1999/2000 and has now embarked on his second term of office. His interests include ornithology and shipping history, particularly that of individual companies. He and his wife, Isobel, also an ex-seafarer, live in rural Essex.

Immediate Past Master - Captain Malcolm Parrott, FRIN FCILT MNI

Captain Malcolm W Parrott, Master Mariner, FRIN, FCILT, MNI has been proactive within the global shipping industry for over forty years specialising in the Fast Ferry and RoRo sectors with considerable experience in both merchant and military shipping.

His seagoing career spanned twenty four years, nearly half of which was spent in command of Container Vessels, RoRo Ferries and Cruise Ships. He has seen service in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) a service within the Royal Navy (RN) as a senior officer. He was a director and senior manager within the Sea Containers organisation where he worked in Operations, General & Commercial Management and Ship Broking during his career there. Captain Parrott was at the very cutting edge of high speed craft, having set up and developed many routes for Sea Containers Ltd or their clients throughout the world. He was Operations Director for Hoverspeed Ltd, the world’s leading high speed operator during the later part of the 20th century. He now heads up, as Managing Director, the European sector of The Maritime Group, an Anglo-American marine consultancy, mainly concerned with the cruise and ferry sectors of the industry. Captain Parrott has been involved at an organizational level with the IMO, MCA and the British and International Chambers of Shipping. He is a graduate of Henley Business College and is an International professional administrator, believing in teamwork and strong leadership. Captain Parrott is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation and, a Younger Brother of The Corporation of Trinity House. He has served for the last five years as a Warden, latterly as Senior Warden, of the Honourable Company. He has lived and worked in California, Singapore and spent his early years in New Zealand. His outside interests centre on his extended family of two sons (and wives), both serving as officers in the British Army, a step-daughter and his six grandchildren. His hobbies are sailing, walking, reading and the theatre (sometimes treading the boards himself). He now lives with his wife Joanna in rural Kent.