When Her Majesty The Queen and HRH Prince Philip arrived in Cowes for the Royal Visit to the Isle of Wight on 25th July 2012 they arrived on Motor Yacht (MY) Leander. Suzanne and Alan provide a little background to the owner Sir (Frederick) Donald Gosling and MY Leander. Ed
MY Leander is owned by Sir Donald Gosling who joined the Royal Navy in 1944 and served in the Mediterranean in the cruiser HMS Leander.
After the War, together with Ronald Hobson, he founded Central Car Parks and in 1959 Central Car Parks took over National Car Parks.
Named after ship he’d served on
Gosling co-chaired the business until he retired in 1998. When looking for a name for his motor yacht he decided to name it after the ship he had served on during WW2.
He was appointed honorary Captain of the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) by the Queen in January 1993; he has subsequently been promoted to Commodore and then to honorary Rear Admiral of the Reserve.
Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom
In April 2012, he became Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom, an honorific position sub-ordinate to the Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom, The Duke of Edinburgh.
Gosling was knighted in the 1976 Resignation Honours List and appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) in the 2004 New Year Honours for services to The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and the Outward Bound Trust.
Used in place of Royal Yacht Britannia
Following the decommissioning of the Royal Yacht Britannia, MY Leander has been used by members of the British Royal Family.
In summer 2007, she was chartered by Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall for a holiday in the Mediterranean. In February 2008, she was chartered by Charles, Prince of Wales and the Duchess for their royal tour of islands in the Caribbean.
This event was the first official royal cruise since the decommissioning of the Royal Yacht Britannia.
