Sarah West (born 1972) is a retired

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

officer, the first woman to be appointed to command a major warship in the Royal Navy. West was born in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

and studied mathematics at the

University of Hertfordshire The University of Hertfordshire (UH) is a public university in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The university is based largely in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Its antecedent institution, Hatfield Technical College, was founded in 1948 and was ident ...

before entering

Britannia Royal Naval College Britannia Royal Naval College (BRNC), commonly known as Dartmouth, is the naval academy of the United Kingdom and the initial officer training establishment of the Royal Navy. It is located on a hill overlooking the port of Dartmouth, Devon, En ...

in September 1995. She joined the Royal Navy as a warfare officer. She also took a law degree whilst on active service in the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

and is an expert in large-scale naval planning, mine clearance, weapons systems and underwater warfare. She was trained on HMS ''Battleaxe'', and , deployed in the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bod ...

. West went on to join the

minesweeper A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping. History The earliest known usage of ...

as a navigator in 1997, and later served as officer of the watch of HMS ''Sheffield'' and navigating officer of . West went on to complete the Principal Warfare Officers' course, specialising in underwater warfare, and joined in 2003. She became Operations Officer in in 2004, and spent some time as the ship's executive officer. She was with Commander Amphibious Task Group from 2005 as the underwater warfare specialist, then at

Permanent Joint Headquarters The Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) is the British tri-service headquarters from where all overseas military operations are planned and controlled. It is situated at Northwood Headquarters in Northwood, London. The Permanent Joint Headquar ...

at Northwood from 2007, followed by work with the Middle East Operations Team. West went on to command several of the ships of the First Mine Counter Measures Squadron between April 2009 and December 2011, , , and . She has also worked on the co-ordination and logistics of the evacuation of UK citizens during the 2006 Lebanon War, naval operations at the time of the 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence and the British naval contribution to the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror , image ...

. She was promoted to commander in January 2012. In May 2012 West assumed command of HMS ''Portland'', a

Type 23 frigate The Type 23 frigate or Duke class is a class of frigates built for the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. The ships are named after British Dukes, thus leading to the class being commonly known as the Duke class. The first Type 23, , was commission ...

. West left the ship during a seven-month deployment to the Caribbean in mid-2014, after allegations that she had had an affair with one of her officers. The Royal Navy was reported to be investigating the allegations. On 8 August 2014 the Navy announced that West had been removed from command, citing an "internal matter", and that she would be reappointed to another post.

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* * 1972 births Alumni of the University of Hertfordshire Living people People from Grimsby Royal Navy officers Royal Navy personnel of the Iraq War Women in the Royal Navy Women in the Iraq War {{UK-navy-bio-stub