A Jubilee Medal for Housing Officer Sinead!

Our Housing Officer Sinead Collins was recently awarded the HM The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal for 14 years’ service with the Sea Cadets!

The Sea Cadets is the UK biggest maritime youth charity, helping cadets learn essential life skills such as leadership and teamwork through nautical adventure activities. Sinead joined the cadets at age 10 and loved it so much that when she turned 18, she started working there. She was appointed the role of Junior Training Officer and was responsible for training the 10–12-year-olds known as ‘juniors’. 

Now working at Watford Community Housing as Housing Officer for Boundary Way, Sherwoods, Kytes and Welwyn Garden City, she continues to volunteer on the weekends and various evenings.

“It is a shock and a great honour to be recognised for my service in the Sea Cadets. This sounds cheesy but the cadets are like a second family to me – they helped me become the person I am today and taught me lots of different skills over the years that I use in my day-to-day life. I love how we help young people learn and grow as individuals – it’s really rewarding seeing them all achieve their goals, no matter how big or small they are.”

Speaking about her work with the Sea Cadets, Sinead was also keen to share a particularly fond memory from 2018: “I had the privilege of meeting former RAF pilot Bill Moore at the St George’s Day parade in 2018. Bill had been in the RAF during the Second World War and was posted to 138 squadron who were part of the special duties ordered by Winston Churchill known as 'set Europe ablaze'. 

"Bill and other pilots in the squadron would drop off agents and packages into occupied Europe to help the French Resistance. They would do this at night with no special navigational equipment and complete radio silence. By doing this, Bill was awarded the French Legion d’Honneur which is the country’s highest distinction. 

"He had many stories, but my favourite was when he proved that an enemy base could be bombed by loading his plane with bags of flour and dumping it on them – he was court marshalled for it but never regretted it. Bill sadly passed away in 2019; he was a true hero.”