Lt Cdr Cummings joined the Royal Navy at the beginning of 1990, specialising as a Weapons Engineering Officer. After completing Britannia Royal Naval College, including his training ship coming back from Hong Kong via the Panama Canal, he joined the Royal Naval Engineering College at Manadon later that following year. Completing his general and specialist training, including a stint in the Adriatic in HMS Coventry, Cummings joined HMS Exeter as the Deputy Weapons Engineering Officer in 1995, including an ARMILLA patrol and a Far East deployment.

He followed his first appointment that with a teaching job at HMS Collingwood instructing explosive safety; this was followed by an MSc in Explosives Ordnance Engineering concluding in a job at Abbeywood,  in the Defence Ordnance Safety Group, responsible for the explosive safety of naval missiles and weapons. Cummings returned to sea on HMS Montrose as WEO in 2005, highlights included work up periods at FOST, a gulf deployment under OP TELIC and towed array ops.

After his command job, Cummings has done a number of project management and performance management assignments, including transferring the naval basis from DE&S to Navy command and performance managing both the DSEME and SFM(P) (as was).

Latterly, Cummings has been involved with CBRNDC since the mid 1990s,instructing at the RN’s CBRNDC school MWS phoenix, being the CBRNDCO on board HMS Prince of Wales (Damage) and is currently the CBRNDC SO2 for SURFLOT, being the CBRNDC leader across Navy Command.

In his spare time, Cummings an avid fan of outdoor activities, as well as domestic construction. A keen sailor, he has represented RN sailing both nationally and internationally. A holder of Winter Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor, Cummings is a recipient of the Royal Humane Society’s Bronze Medallion for his part in rescuing a person on Mount Everest in 2003.