HMS Penzance surprise proposal as ship returns from Gulf

Petty Officer Mark Titman said he had been thinking of the best way to propose

It was a homecoming with a difference for one Royal Navy sailor who proposed to his girlfriend as the ship returned to port after months at sea.

Petty Officer Mark Titman, 34, got down on one knee on the deck of HMS Penzance while crew mates held a banner which said "Will you marry me?"

His girlfriend Laura Campbell, who was waiting with their baby daughter Ava, said it was a "lovely surprise".

Petty Officer Titman, from Sheffield, was deployed to the Gulf in January.

He described his girlfriend Laura Campbell as the "perfect woman"

Ms Campbell said it was a "massive surprise"

He said Ms Campbell, 32, from Glasgow, was "the perfect woman" and that he had been thinking of how to propose since buying the ring in April.

"I thought this was the best way to do it - spell it out to her and give her a bit of a heads up," he said.

The family was reunited after months at sea for Petty Officer Titman who had been serving in the Gulf

Families and friends were waiting on the HM Naval Base in Clyde to welcome the crew as the mine-hunter returned from its deployment in the Gulf having left Faslane in June 2014.

In January this year, she was one of five Royal Navy vessels which joined forces with the United States Mine Hunting vessels and aircraft to take part in an exercise in the Arabian Gulf, testing their prowess in locating underwater explosives.