About

Dave Perkins has been involved in Search and Rescue as a member of the Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team since the early 1970s.

He formed The Centre for Search Research in 1997 alongside Pete Roberts to enable them to pursue their interest in topics and techniques relating to searching and search management. The company became a UK registered charity in the same year.

Though now retired from the mountain rescue team Dave continues his research work as enthusiastically as ever.

Pete Roberts has been a member of Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team (NNPMRT) since 1973 and has been their Team Leader on two occasions.  In the 1980’s with Dave Perkins he co-authored the idea of Critical Separation and Purposeful Wandering and recent work has linked these concepts to Search Theory and search in the initial response phase of an incident.

He formed The Centre for Search Research in 1997 alongside Dave Perkins to enable them to pursue their interest in topics and techniques relating to searching and search management. The company became a UK registered charity in the same year.

He has extensive knowledge and experience of managing Search and Rescue (SAR) Incidents. He has presented on the subject at SAR conferences throughout the UK, Ireland, US, Canada and New Zealand.  TCSR teach courses on search management and field search skills to volunteer SAR groups and to the Police and has recently been extensively involved in training Irish Civil Defence and Irish Coast Guard personnel in all aspects of search for a missing person. 

Pete is a qualified drone pilot and is currently working with TCSR colleagues and in collaboration with both Newcastle University and the University of Northumbria, on major research projects to inform best practice and establish the effectiveness of drones in search and looking at the use of AI in missing persons search.

In 2023, Pete reached the momentous milestone of 50 years service as a Mountain Rescue Team member.  This achievement, and his wider contribution to the development of search techniques and training was recognised by Mountain Rescue England and Wales, the national body for mountain rescue, with the presentation of a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Pete, though now retired from his 'day job' was a secondary school teacher by profession.  He is married and has two grown up daughters and five grandchildren.

Carl Hamilton has been a member of Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team since1985 and has been involved in hundreds of incidents including the major incident response to the Lockerbie air disaster which lasted for three weeks.  During this time his involvement in Mountain Rescue has extended to Team, Regional and National level.   He has served the Team in many different roles including Equipment Officer, Members Rep, Deputy Leader and Team Leader. He is currently the Statistics Officer for the team and also represents the North East Search and Rescue Association as a member of the Mountain Rescue England and Wales National Drone Group.

He has extensive knowledge and experience of co-ordinating and managing Search and Rescue incidents, including co-ordinating multi-agency involvement.  He is a qualified Water First Responder and also qualified as an advanced mountain rescue casualty carer (then known as MR Paramedic) in 1990 and maintained this qualification, re-certifying every two years, until 2003. 

In his role as Trustee and Director of the Centre for Search Research he has presented at conferences and teaches courses on all aspects of search skills and search management both in the UK and overseas to organisations including Coast Guard, Police/Garda, Fire and Rescue, Civil Defence, Red Cross, Mountain Rescue and Search Dog teams.  The overseas aspects of this work have included work with responding agencies from Ireland, Poland, Iceland the USA, Canada and Norway.

Carl is a qualified drone pilot and is currently working with TCSR colleagues and in collaboration with both Newcastle University and the University of Northumbria, on major research projects to inform best practice and establish the effectiveness of drones in search and looking at the use of AI in missing persons search.

He continues to gain much satisfaction from giving something back and helping others. He is married, has a sixteen-year old daughter, lives in a small village in the beautiful rolling hills of Northumberland in the north of England and is a secondary school teacher by profession.

David Owen has been Chair of The Centre for Search Research since its very beginning. He is a former member of the Northumberland National Park Authority, and the voluntary ranger team. An Economics graduate, he lectured at Kirkley Hall College in finance and management and contributes this expertise to the financial management and administration of the charity.

Rachel is Chief Constable of Durham Constabulary and has more than twenty five years police service with five Forces, Sussex, Hampshire, Northumbria, South Wales and now Durham.  She has been a detective for much of her service and has worked with Police Search Teams and Advisers in various settings, from missing person enquiries to crime scene searches and security operations.

Rachel enjoys walking in the hills with her working cocker spaniel and husband, who has a background in Mountain Rescue.  She has, over many years, mountaineered in the UK and the Alps, kayaked and canoed in the UK, Europe and the Caribbean and recently taken up open water swimming.

In addition to his responsibilities as a Trustee of The Centre for Search Research, Dr Andrew Jenkins is CEO and Founder of Kinewell Energy Ltd, an active operational Mountain Rescue team member with Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team (NNPMRT), and is a handler with a fully graded Mountain Rescue search dog with MRSDE.

He graduated with a Masters of Engineering (New and Renewable Energy) with honours from Durham University, UK in 2010. He holds a PhD which he studied for at Newcastle University, UK, following three years working with an international advisory firm. Following his PhD until 2020, Dr Andrew Jenkins also held the role Senior Major Projects Development Manager at Newcastle University leading the development of large-scale funding bids (£millions and £10millions) focused on innovation and regional economic development building on the University’s research strengths.

He became an operational member of NNPMRT in 2014, and qualified as a casualty carer in 2016. In addition to his operational duties, he also undertook the Press Officer role for NNPMRT over the period 2014-2019, and in 2018 started training a search dog with Mountain Rescue Search Dogs England.

Dr Jenkins brings his combined unique expertise to bear in his role as a Trustee of the Centre for Search Research and, along with other Trustees, provides oversight of the Charity’s operations.