Nov 6 2021

Meet Lieutenant Ed Davidson

My name is Ed Davidson - originally from Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom, I grew up in Madrid where my parents and younger sister still live. My girlfriend, April, works for a pharmaceutical consultancy as a researcher and splits her time between the UK and Portugal. I've served in the Royal Navy for seven years and in that time I've been lucky enough to work in a variety of units and locations, notably onboard one of the UK's Vanguard-Class strategic nuclear deterrent submarines deployed on operations.

Although I'm not from a military family, joining the Royal Navy was something that I had always thought about: it was the sense of adventure that attracted me to the Service. In that regard it has certainly delivered! I've spent time on operations in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Baltic Seas and travelled all across the UK. To double down on this, I've also spent most of my time off travelling to remote and history-rich locations. I routinely combine my interest in history with travel and people: understanding the culture and context behind a location, especially if some of the history is unknown or poorly documented, makes the trip all the more exciting and interesting. I speak a few languages and hoping to pick up Portuguese during my time here.

Since arriving in Portugal to join STRIKFORNATO I've enjoyed exploring and hiking the beautiful landscapes of Sintra and the coastline. I'm passionate about history, technology, science and people and I spend a considerable amount of my free time reading. Some of the favorites include Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed, Factfullness by Hans Rosling and The Last Days of the Incas by Kim MacQuarrie. I'm also currently learning how to code; a slightly niche interest is Natural Language Processing (NLP), a subsection of machine learning which focuses on the analysis and understanding of human text.

Out of all the outdoor activities, swimming is the absolute favorite. April and I recently returned from a trip to North Wales where we wild swam across multiple lakes and abandoned slate mines. Arguably quite a good way to prepare for the rather cold water of Guincho beach! I've thoroughly enjoyed me time so far at STRIKFORNATO and hope it will continue to deliver.