Welcome party for HMS Pembroke at Faslane

A CROWD of about 100 friends and relatives, waving banners and balloons, welcomed HMS Pembroke back to Faslane on the Clyde yesterday.

The crew of the Royal Navy minehunter enjoyed a hero’s return as they stepped on to the dock, to be greeted with signs, including one that read “Welcome Home Daddy”.

One sailor was reunited with his baby daughter after more than seven months at sea. Chief petty officer Mike Jack, 35, from Largoward, Fife, had to leave six-week-old Eilidh when he was deployed to the Arabian Gulf with HMS Pembroke in January.

Technician Andrew Lee, 34, from Larkhall, Lanarkshire, was reunited with fiancée Elaine Bolton, 29. They were engaged when she flew to Dubai halfway through his deployment.

He said: “I asked her at Dubai Creek when we were sitting on a wooden dhow.”