Our President

Captain Alison Towler RN

Alison joined the Women’s Royal Naval Service at HMS RALEIGH in 1987. After initial officer training at BRNC Dartmouth and completion of the Junior Supply Officer Course in 1988 she was appointed to RAF TURNHOUSE in Edinburgh on the Joint Maritime Operations Training Staff. It was during this appointment that women of the naval services were invited to volunteer for sea service. Alison was amongst the first to do so, but before going to sea she served as Secretary to the Captain(SM) Third Submarine Squadron at Faslane between 1990 and 1992. Her first tour at sea was on board Type 21 Frigate HMS ACTIVE as Deputy Supply Officer and Secretary to the Captain Fourth Frigate Squadron. This appointment ended with selection for legal training in 1993 and she was called to the bar in 1995.

On completion of pupillage in 1996 she was appointed as Staff Legal Adviser to the Flag Officer Submarines and Deputy Fleet Legal Adviser. She returned to sea in Supply Charge of Type 23 Frigate HMS NORFOLK in 1998 in the rank of Lieutenant Commander, during which the ship was involved in operations off Sierra Leone and in the Adriatic. In 2000 she became the Executive Assistant to the Commodore Portsmouth Naval Base where she served until being appointed as Senior Prosecuting Officer in the Naval Prosecuting Authority in 2003.

She was promoted to Commander in 2005, and in 2006 took responsibility for naval discipline policy on the staff of the Director Naval Legal Services. She was then involved in the implementation of the Armed Forces Act 2006 until 2009 when she was appointed to Central Legal Services in the Ministry of Defence, drafting and advising on legislation. Assigned to Navy Personnel Casework in January 2010, she spent two years advising on all aspects of Service complaints, harassment and discrimination issues and administrative law. Alison became the Royal Navy’s senior prosecutor in the Service Prosecuting Authority at RAF NORTHOLT on promotion to Captain in 2014 and remained in that position until her retirement from the Navy in 2017.

Alison now undertakes various Non-Executive Director roles including as a Harbour Commissioner in Lymington and is employed as a consultant in the maritime industry. Along with her husband Perrin she takes an active role in the Royal Lymington Yacht Club and also Hornet Services Sailing Club from which they sail their Westerly Fulmar. She enjoys singing in the Anglican choral tradition.  She became President of the Association in May 2019.