FROM SEA TO BRIDAL PATH
Petty Officer (Mine Warfare) Mark Titman, from Sheffield, with Laura Campbell and daughter Ava, after proposing to Laura as Crew 1, who have spent the last seven and a half months operating HMS Penzance, returned to HM Naval Base Clyde yesterday.
A ROYAL Navy mine-hunter turned love boat for the day when a sailor proposed to his girlfriend as the ship returned to her home port after months at sea.
Petty Officer (Mine Warfare) Mark Titman, 34, got down on one knee on the deck of HMS
Penzance while his crew mates held a banner which said “Will you marry me?”.
It was a “massive surprise” for his girlfriend Laura Campbell, who was waiting on the quayside with the couple’s baby Ava, and happily she said yes.
Petty Officer Titman, from Sheffield, then got down on bended knee to put a ring on her finger and present her with a bouquet of flowers at HM Naval Base Clyde.
He said: “I got the ring in April so I knew I was going to do it, so I was just getting loads of ideas. I had a few ideas and narrowed it down to this one.
“My crew mates knew about it and helped out.”
He joked: “I thought this was the best way to do it – spell it out to her to give her a bit of a heads up.”
Ms Campbell, from the Glasgow area, who also has a 10-year-old daughter Caitlynn, was not prepared for the proposal as she waited with family and friends.
The 32-year-old said: “It was a massive surprise. We had talked about it and stuff, but not anytime soon, so it was a lovely surprise.”