North of Scotland RNLI stalwart Anne Scott retires

Anne first volunteered at an RNLI fundraising event ‘some time in the 1970s’ but did not join the charity’s staff until 2001 when she started as an administrative assistant. In 2004 she was promoted to fundraising manager and served in, broadly, these roles, covering lifeboat stations from Aberdeen to Aith in Shetland, from Fraserburgh in Aberdeenshire to Leverburgh on the Isle of Harris, until her retirement yesterday.

Her ’life on the road’ has seen Anne routinely clocking up in excess of 30,000 miles each year providing leadership and support to the volunteer fundraising groups and guilds across the highlands and islands.

Anne says: “It’s been a real privilege working alongside our volunteers, both fundraising and operational; the RNLI is a real team effort. Together we save lives and I’m delighted to continue to be part of such a phenomenal organisation made up of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.”

Anne was born with the RNLI in her blood – her father, Ian Jack, was volunteer mechanic at the former Cromarty Lifeboat Station and later full-time mechanic at Aberdeen Lifeboat Station. Anne and her Dad are among those who, if you cut them, would bleed orange and blue!

But Anne won’t be jumping ship from the lifeboat service any time soon. Knowing her retirement was coming soon, her hometown station, Buckie Lifeboat, talked Anne into new volunteer roles, first as a deputy launching authority and, since 2021, as the station’s volunteer lifeboat operations manager.

Buckie Lifeboat coxswain Davie Grant says of Anne Scott : “It’s a privilege for the Buckie crew to have Anne as our lifeboat operations manager. She has given outstanding service to the RNLI both as a volunteer and as a member of staff. Her energy is phenomenal, her humour infectious, and she commands the respect of the lifeboat community throughout Scotland.”

Key facts about the RNLI

The RNLI charity saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 146,000 lives.

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