AN EAST Ayrshire sailor has been rewarded for eight years of exemplary service in the Royal Navy in a very unique setting.

The Antarctic research station at Port Lockroy – nearly 9,000 miles from Kayleigh Gibson’s home in Muirkirk – served as the backdrop for the captain of the Royal Navy’s polar research ship and icebreaker HMS Protector to present the 28-year-old leading chef with her second Good Conduct Badge.

The badge – signified by a gold chevron or stripe on a sailor’s uniform – is presented every four years to personnel who have served their nation with an unblemished, exemplary record.

Kayleigh, who joined the Royal Navy in 2013, is one of 70 sailors and Royal Marines aboard the Plymouth-based ship which is on a five-year mission to the Southern Hemisphere.

Protector spends the austral summer (winter in the UK) working around the Antarctic Peninsula, updating maps, assessing the impact of climate change, supporting the British Antarctic Survey and helping research into the region’s wildlife, including monitoring the penguin populace.

The ship called in on Port Lockroy to deliver UK Antarctic Heritage Trust staff and stores to Base A, a research station which dates back to the 1940s and now an historical site with the contents preserved and looked after by the trust as one of the most southerly museums in the world.

In her eight years in the Royal Navy, Kayleigh regards her time on Protector as her best and the experiences it offers – from visits to Miami, Charleston and Fort Lauderdale to the unsurpassable beauty of the Lemaire Channel on the edge of the frozen continent.

She’s also sailed as far east as Tokyo and Singapore with assault ship HMS Albion – also based in Plymouth – back in 2018. Serving in the Royal Navy has, she says, given her the opportunity of “travelling to places I would never think of going”.

The former Auchinleck Academy student still calls Muirkirk home – her parents Jacqueline and Jim continue to live there – and despite the distance, modern communications allow her to follow the progress of her Rangers favourites most of the time.

“I am pleased to have received my second Good Conduct Badge,” she said. “I’ve worked hard for it.”

With her galley colleagues she is expected to serve more than 200 meals a day, and operating in the Antarctic means there’s no chance to stock up the larder/fridge/freezer for around one month at a time.