Naval crew welcomed home by family after deployment

Joshua Dear has reunited with his parents Lisa and David in time for Christmas

Royal Navy crew members from HMS Richmond say they are excited to see family, friends and pets after a long deployment overseas.

Hundreds of relatives and friends of the Plymouth-based frigate's crew welcomed them home on Sunday following an eight-month mission.

The vessel and its 200-strong crew played an integral role in its premier deployment of 2025. Operation Highmast saw deployments to India, Asia and Australia to protect the UK's flagship vessel HMS Prince of Wales.

Onboard was engineer and technician Joshua Dear, who said he had made "a lot of memories seeing a lot of the world" but was getting excited to be reunited with his cats.

He said: "I have two cats back home, I love them to death, they're my little babies - one's called Marley, one's called Bubble."

His father David said the family group chat communications included a lot of photos "flying back and forth" of the pets.

He said: "The cats in various poses and doing certain things - cat photos are the most requested of everything else."

Joshua's family, including his mum Lisa, travelled down from south Wales to pick him up just in time for the holiday.

David said: "We've got a special Christmas home with all the family, so we can't wait to have him home.

"Eight months hasn't been too bad. It's gone well... we kept in touch, we know where he is and it's a good experience for Josh and for all the boys and women of the group."

Amber Donaldson is heading home to New Zealand for the first time in five-and-a-half years

Leading physical trainer and native New Zealander Amber Donaldson said her role focused on "getting people up, active, keeping their minds busy while we've been away from friends and family for so long" during the eight-month period.

She said: "Having that time away from your working day when you can't actually escape your workplace is just really important - not only your physical wellbeing but also your mental wellbeing.

"Sometimes when you're away for so long it can be quite difficult, but it just gives them that mini escape for the day."

Ms Donaldson said she would now be heading home to New Zealand for the first time in five-and-a-half years for Christmas and that she was excited to see everybody in person again.

She said: "Having the wi-fi on board has been a blessing, really, to be able to facetime my parents, my brother, my friends; and all the little care packages that came in the mail were really, really, really appreciated."