Martin Alabaster Martin Alabaster Rear Admiral Martin Brian Alabaster CBE (born 10 August 1958) is a retired senior officer in the British Royal Navy. Alabaster spent his early years in Devon, Pembrokeshire and Hampshire but for the majority of his upbringing lived in south London. There, he attended Dulwich College. He later joined the Royal Navy and entered Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, at the rank of Midshipman in January 1977. Martin completed his Naval General Training, and then went up to Queens’ College, Cambridge to read Engineering. Alabaster took up his first sea appointment as the Weapons Section Officer in
Midshipman longer the case that those joining the Navy as university graduates start as sub-lieutenants, with non-graduates joining as midshipmen. Graduates and non-graduates all start as midshipmen, and wait to be promoted at the same time. General basic training (initial officer training) for Royal Navy officers takes place at the Britannia Royal Naval College. Training takes up to a year depending on specialisation; all midshipmen participate in at least the first two terms, which are 14 weeks each. Until they have completed initial fleet training, both midshipmen and sub-lieutenants at Britannia Royal Naval College do not use their substantive ranks, but