A HEAVILY pregnant bride-to-be has told how it felt “surreal” after her partner returned from eight months in the Gulf with the Royal Navy and proposed.
Hazel Staunton was waiting for Joshua Bertman as he arrived at HM Naval Base Clyde at Faslane at the end of his deployment.
The couple of four years, from outside Doncaster in Yorkshire, are expecting a baby girl in three weeks, who will be named India.
But the able seaman caught his long-term partner off-guard when he was the first person off HMS Bangor and got down on one knee.
Mr Bertman, 22, said: “I’ve missed all of (the pregnancy), so I’ve come back and she’s like this.
“(I decided to propose) about two months in. I wanted to do it, so I thought I’d just do it - it’s a good time to do it when in sunny Scotland.”
The 21-year-old mother-to-be also said: “I just couldn’t believe it, I was just so happy,”
For the past three years HMS Bangor has been in the Gulf as part of efforts to protect shipping lanes.
It was among three British ships which also joined American and French forces in the Gulf of Oman for training exercises.
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