Shamed nuclear submarine captain at the centre of sex scandal is now a ‘crisis’ manager

A disgraced former Royal Navy captain who was at the centre of a submarine sex scandal has taken up a role in reputation and crisis management.

Commander Stuart Armstrong, 48, was relieved of duties on the Vanguard-class nuclear submarine HMS Vigilant after it emerged that he had slept with a female subordinate, and that nine members of his crew had been caught taking cocaine.

She was named as Sub-Lieutenant Rebecca Edwards, a then 25-year-old weapons engineering officer on the boat, who is said to have dressed in Mr Armstrong’s uniform during ‘boozy horseplay’ in the officers’ mess.

Ms Edwards is also said to have worn his gold epaulettes and barked out joke orders to other officers aboard HMS Vigilant – which carries some of the UK’s nuclear warheads.

Mr Armstrong, from Kirkcudbright, was criticised by Ms Edwards’ family for allegedly preying on the junior crew member.

Commander Stuart Armstrong slept with Sub-Lieutenant Rebecca Edwards

Mr Armstrong was relieved of duties on the Vanguard-class nuclear submarine HMS Vigilant

Her grandfather Thomas Walker told The Mail on Sunday at the time: ‘I just hope that the male officers involved in this don’t drag Rebecca down with them.’

Other critics, including Colonel Richard Kemp, who commanded British forces in Afghanistan, said the situation was ‘terrifying’.

Now, in a bizarre twist, The Mail on Sunday can disclose that Mr Armstrong is teaching others about crisis management. 

He took up a role at Inverroy Crisis Management in April, having previously worked with the Edinburgh consultancy in 2019 after he was first relieved of his naval duties.

In a video recorded for businesses in June 2020, he says that ‘for the last 20 years I have been dealing with crises underwater’.

Mr Armstrong, who studied at Glasgow University, was hauled off HMS Vigilant in 2017 and stripped of his command amid concerns about an ‘inappropriate’ relationship with Ms Edwards.

Their alleged affair led to five officers on the boat threatening to resign in protest at what they considered a blatant breach of the Navy’s ‘no touching’ rules.

Mr Armstrong had been in charge of HMS Vigilant for only a few months at the time, after serving on HMS Artful from December 2015.

He met Ms Edwards, who had qualified as a submariner in 2016, following the collapse of his marriage to Sally Young.