Padstow lifeboat volunteer receives award for half a century of service
On Saturday 8 February at the Harbour Hotel in Padstow, RNLI volunteer Peter Poole was presented with a Vellum for his 52 years with Padstow Lifeboat, where he spent 21 years as a crew member and 31 years as winchman
Tom Mansell, Regional Lifesaving Lead South West, presented the RNLI’s Thanks of the Institution inscribed on Vellum to Peter, alongside Padstow Lifeboat Operations Manager Martin Biddle and Coxswain Richard Pitman.
In Peter's 52 years of service Padstow’s volunteer lifeboat crew have rescued 178 people.
Tom Mansell said:
‘At the RNLI our work is driven by our values, our staff and volunteers are selfless, dependable, trustworthy and courageous, all of which describe Peter. In all the time I have been coming to the station I’ve never been there on a training evening or at an operations meeting and not seen Peter, he has been truly dedicated and will be very much missed’
Padstow RNLI Coxswain Richard Pitman reflected:
‘It was a great evening and occasion to mark Pete’s retirement and present him with the well-deserved award. We had over 70 people there, crew past and present, volunteers and family and friends, a real testament to Pete’s character.’
On receiving the Vellum award and gifts from his colleagues at Padstow RNLI and Kilmore Quay RNLI, Peter said:
‘Things have changed since I joined, boats have got more and more sophisticated, requiring even more training time from the crews and it’s a real commitment. It’s been a pleasure and an honour to serve a sentence with this crew and I wish them all the very best for the future.’
Peter and the Padstow crew have developed a strong relationship with Kilmore Quay RNLI over the years and they recently attended Kilmore Quay’s mechanic, Brian Kehoe’s retirement event.
Peter was also immortalised in cake, showing him working the lifeboat station winch which he has done for the last 31 years.
Notes to editors
Image 1: Peter Poole with his Vellum
Image 2: The Padstow RNLI Lifeboat crew with Peter (Centre)
Image 3: Peter's cake
Credit: Padstow RNLI Lifeboat.
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