Captain and officer who dressed in his uniform
THE captain of HMS Vigilant was the first to be hauled off the submarine over the scandal when it docked in the US last month.
Commander Stuart Armstrong, 41, was relieved of his duties amid claims he was having an affair with a junior officer.
She was named as SubLieutenant Rebecca Edwards, a 25-year- old weapons engineering officer on the boat, and a first-class honours physicist.
The Bristol University graduate was said to have dressed in the captain’s uniform during boozy horseplay.
She is believed to have worn his gold epaulettes and barked out joke orders to other officers aboard the Vanguardclass submarine.
Their alleged affair led to five officers threatening to resign in protest at what they considered a blatant breach of the Navy’s ‘no touching’ rules
Commander Armstrong had been in charge of HMS Vigilant only since February this year, after serving on HMS Artful from December 2015.
He met Sub- Lieutenant Edwards, who had qualified as a submariner last year, following the collapse of his marriage to Sally Young.
The captain had married Miss Young – a lieutenant in the Navy Reserve – in 2005 and had moved around various ships before working for Nato in 2012.
The marriage ended, according to a source close to her family, because of the strains of military life.
Before joining the Navy in 2014, Sub-Lieutenant Edwards had lived with her 50-year- old father, who is also thought to have a background in the armed forces, in Kettering, Northamptonshire.
She faces being fined or demoted pending an official inquiry. Although she is no longer on the submarine, she is still working while the investigation is ongoing.
Her family have condemned Commander Armstrong for allegedly preying on a junior crew member.