The Worshipful Company of Engineers, through its charitable arm the Engineers Trust, is honoured to recognise outstanding performance and leadership across all branches of the Armed Forces and their civilian engineering support teams. Awards were presented at the Company’s Awards Dinner on 4th June 2024.

Undergraduate Award 2024

Awarded to an officer graduating from the Defence Technical Undergraduate Scheme (DTUS)  who has achieved outstanding academic performance and demonstrated clear leadership and  commitment to a professional engineering career in the Armed Forces.

Midshipman Morgan Sparkes Royal Navy graduated with a First Class Honours Degree from Aston University where he studied as part of the Defence Technical Undergraduate Scheme reading for a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

Based on a Raspberry Pi and utilising XCSoar software, Morgan developed an in-flight computer which enables a pilot to plan, follow and record inflight routes utilising GPS (with no RF transmitting outputs).  The system can be upgraded to have gesture control using a Flickboard, providing even more functionality.

Postgraduate Award 2024

Awarded to an officer completing a postgraduate technical degree who has achieved overall academic excellence and contributed most to the advancement of technical knowledge or its application through a research project.

Captain Fred Dickson RLC completed some exceptionally novel research in the area of Explosives engineering as part of his Post Graduate studies with Cranfield University.  This was done in conjunction with Partners Across Government and academia; with the research offering exceptional value for money and developing a step change in the understanding of the conventional and terrorist use of the Misznay-Schardin (Explosively Formed Projectile) effect on the penetration of armoured vehicles.   This analysis will have a strategic effect on improvements to both the lethality of our weapon systems and the protection for our Armed Forces. 

The Royal Navy Engineer Officer of the Year 2024

Sub Lt Callum Urwin RN has had a very successful year. His Head of Department was sent to a higher priority unit so Sub Lt Urwin stepped up as, amongst other things, SHIPHAZ competence person, Laser Safety Officer and Explosives Responsible Officer, roles usually undertaken by a Lt Cdr level and are classed as safety critical. He has successfully led and delivered multiple assurance events including key milestones for a Ship emerging from upkeep placing HMS ST ALBANS in a good place to start sea trials. He has delivered and shown maturity way above what is expected of a Sub Lt. 

The Royal Navy Engineer Technician of the Year 2024

Petty Officer Henry Johnson has excelled in the role of Continuing Airworthiness (CA) Management Coordinator, showcasing engineering judgement and technical innovation. Driving CA compliance, he has designed a tool to assess and visually display the holistic airworthiness risk associated with each aircraft.

His work has improved the quality and efficiency of risk reviews and the tool is now available to all maintenance managers who are now better placed to make data driven maintenance decisions. Johnson conducted extensive research and self-taught the application code to produce this tool.

The Army Engineer Officer of the Year 2024

Captain Olivia Flaherty, Royal Signals

With preparation starting a year in advance, Captain Flaherty led the technical opposing force in UK and Western Europe’s biggest cyber defence exercise thus far. She led simulated adversary cyber-attack for the pan-Government Exercise Defence Cyber Marvel 3 delivered in February 2024. The team were fundamental to this international event.

As the Red Team leader, she directed the exercise opposition comprising over 120 engineering specialists drawn from across Defence, British industry, plus international allies and partners. Captain Flaherty has been instrumental in delivering training and cohering her people into a credible cyber-opposition to be pitted against experienced cyber defenders. This has involved either building on the ever-developing skills and experience of those who have undertaken previous exercises or identifying new talent and giving them their first taste of offensive cyber operations. This was enabled through her own unparalleled knowledge and significant emotional intelligence, being a true subject matter expert and a one-stop shop for advice and guidance.

Her scope of activity has extended far beyond the 2024 Exercise delivery week. The amount of preparation work needed to ensure a realistic and challenging cyberspace environment for the several hundred in the training audience was daunting. However, Captain Flaherty organised and delivered multiple training weekends and evenings in the nine-months prior to the exercise to bring out the best in her diverse team. A leader and highly capable engineer she firmly controlled outputs to ensure the simulated cyber-attacks were enough to test but never break the competitors, enhancing learning and growth opportunities for all. Under her guidance the Red Team also developed cutting edge ethical hacking techniques to compromise systems creating knowledge that will subsequently enhance our own internal digital resilience. Her work is recognised internationally including the NATO Cyber Centre of Excellence who now ask for her by name to brief best-practice.

Captain Flaherty has demonstrated the highest levels of operational, engineering and military leadership throughout both the build-up and execution of Western Europe’s largest cyber defence exercise. She has always gone above and beyond everything that might be expected of her. She is an outstanding altruistic ambassador for the Army, Defence and the Nation, operating at a level much higher than expected of her rank. Overall, her engineering judgement and leadership is simply superb and truly worthy of professional recognition.

The Army Engineer Soldier of the Year 2024

Cpl (now Sgt) Samuel Gerber, REME has consistently proven himself to be an exceptional Engineer who delivers on novel engineering problems.

Cpl Gerber has exploited opportunities, innovated, influenced and delivered technical solutions. Most notably, his recent deployment on Operations at very short notice to the Mediterranean has cemented his clear talent. During this deployment, he has been as the most senior REME person in Theatre and delivered at a level well above his rank.

The Royal Air Force Engineer Officer of the Year 2024

Flight Lieutenant (now Squadron Leader) Alex Bragg was the first flight test engineer assigned to 56 Squadron, the UK MOD’s flight test organisation delivering test and evaluation of ISTAR platforms.

Bragg demonstrated an outstanding understanding of capability development and airworthiness whilst leading complex test teams. An exemplar was a technical study on RC-135 aircraft crosswind limits, considering large volumes of modelling, limited flight trials and the changing regulatory context. Bragg was able to cohere all available information and succinctly and accurately communicate implications to the Type Airworthiness Authority and senior stakeholders enabling decisions on envelope expansion. Bragg has also directly contributed to availability through cross wind expansion, and delivery of capability and assurance of operational performance through Poseidon SAR trials – two of many examples.

The Royal Air Force Engineering Technican of the Year 2024

Chief Technician (now Flight Sergeant) Chris Ainsworth RAF is a phenomenal member of the RAF’s Engineering Profession Advisory Team where he is charged with providing specialist trade advice to lead agencies on subjects including workforce planning, selection, recruiting, training and career management. a role normally held by an Executive Warrant Officer.

Exceptional judgement and a developed technical understanding of both the Weapons and Mechanical Technician specialisations have resulted in strategic proposals, the result of which will be a more empowered, technically adept, and appropriately challenged workforce, improving the skillset of the cadre whilst maintaining the workforce levels. Just one example of many strategic outputs that Ainsworth has influenced. An exceptional individual that leads by example, and inspires those around him.

The Defence Civilian Engineer of the Year 2024

The Award is given to an individual who has contributed most, through the application of professional engineering judgement – including the use of leadership, management, and technical acumen – in operational performance, the acquisition of new capability or to meet material availability targets.

Dr Dawn Gilbert BEng MS MBA EngD CEng FIET is the Lead Engineer for the Space-Based Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (SB-ISR) Programme within the Space Delivery Team. She is responsible for the engineering delivery of a £970M ten-year Programme, providing Defence with a constellation of state-of-the-art satellites and ground infrastructure. She provides inspirational leadership across a disparate enterprise, corralling effort across: military personnel in UK Space Command; defence industry; engineers & project staff; scientists, and external consultants. The application of her outstanding engineering judgement and technical acumen has resulted in the Programme being able to articulate robust requirement sets that industry can respond to.

The Worshipful Company of Engineers Charitable Trust (the Engineers Trust) acknowledges excellence in engineering, supports engineering education and research, gives grants and assists in the relief of hardship and poverty.