150-year-old telescope presented to Barmouth RNLI
A man whose family has been linked to the RNLI in Barmouth since the 1860s has donated a 150-year-old telescope to the town's lifeboat station.
Robert Wyn Jones is a descendant of one of Barmouth’s oldest families and the great-grand-nephew of Humphrey Jones, the first named coxswain of Barmouth lifeboat, a position he held for 26 years from 1866 to 1892. Robert’s father, Rhys David Jones, was also coxswain of Barmouth Lifeboat from 1960 to 1967 and Robert himself has served as a member of the volunteer crew.
Robert was recently left a telescope which had been in the Jones family for generations. Inscribed ‘National Lifeboat Institution1861’, it is believed to have belong to Rees Jones of Bryn Peris who was the son of Coxswain Humphrey Jones and served as RNLI secretary and signalman from 1888 until his death in November 1929. On Saturday 12 November 2016, Robert Wyn kindly donated the telescope to Barmouth RNLI.
David Baily, Barmouth RNLI Lifeboat Operations Manager, said: ‘We are very grateful that Robert has decided to make this very generous donation and delighted that this beautiful telescope has been presented to the station. We will arrange for it to be displayed in the Museum section of our RNLI shop at the lifeboat station.’
Notes to editors:
Pictured: Sybil Jones and Robert Wyn Jones, ex-crew member and descendant of first Barmouth RNLI Coxswain Humphrey Jones, presents the telescope to current Coxswain Peter Davies and Second Coxswain Rob Williams. Credit RNLI/Barmouth
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