
Dunbar RNLI honours long serving volunteers
Lifeboat volunteer Gordon Kirkham was presented with a special medal marking two decades of service on a night where Dunbar RNLI honoured long serving crew members past and present.
Volunteers gathered at the Harbour Chapel, Victoria Street, on Saturday night (12 October), where Coronation medals were presented to crew members with five years or more service and framed vellum certificates were handed to former crew members who served ten years or more.
Presenting the awards was Lord-Lieutenant for East Lothian, Roderick Urquhart, accompanied by Kate Darrah, Deputy Lieutenant, and Lord Lieutenant cadet Lance Corporal Maia Babtie, of 16 Troup Dunbar Lothian and Borders Army Cadet Force.
The Lord-Lieutenant said: ‘It's a great honour for me to visit RNLI Dunbar to present you with your medals which mark the coronation of the King and Queen Camilla. The RNLI is a revered life-saving organisation, manned by volunteers whose sole aim is to save everyone in danger in the sea – and in so doing you ooze passion, talent and kindness.
‘On behalf of the King, I thank you most sincerely for the extraordinary voluntary work you undertake, but I also thank you on behalf of everyone who lives in or about Dunbar and along our coast line, and especially those you have saved at sea. Congratulations to you all. Together you are a formidable team and we are so fortunate to have such an experienced and effective lifeboat crew here in Dunbar.’
Mark Lees, Dunbar Lifeboat Station chairman, said: ‘There are around 100 volunteers at the station – across the crew, fundraisers and shop workers – and we are hugely blessed to have your unwavering support and commitment. Tonight is all about the crew who go out protecting life in the community but they wouldn’t be able to do any of that without the support they get from the fundraising committee and the shop volunteers.’
After receiving his 20-year service medal, Gordon, 44, a mechanic on the all-weather lifeboat and helm on the inshore lifeboat, said: ‘In my time I have seen some horrible things but I have enjoyed it and after 20 years I am still learning. I am progressing onto the next thing and training to become a coxswain is part of that. The scary thing is I might do it all again and do another 20 years!’
Gordon’s first involvement with Dunbar RNLI came in 1996, aged 16 on the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme and as a leading sea cadet he attended the naming ceremony of the station’s original Trent class lifeboat Sir Ronald Pechell BT, presenting the family whose donation helped fund the vessel with a commemorative gift. After a few years away, when he lived in Edinburgh, Gordon returned to Dunbar and rejoined the crew, becoming mechanic two years later and helm in 2013.
Gordon’s wife Laura is the longest serving female crew member with 18 years’ service. The couple met while working together at Belhaven Brewery and when Laura became a volunteer Gordon revealed certain rules were laid down.
He said: ‘There were concerns about us being on the boat together and what would happen if we broke up. It was a bit of pressure on an early relationship! Thankfully, we haven’t had any major issues. It’s a bit unusual for a married couple to be on the crew. Some couples go hill walking in their free time, we go out to sea in a lifeboat.’
Gordon, who works as an emergency plan instructor at Torness Power Station, recalled his first service ‘shout’ was to a crew member fisherman whose boat had broken down but a memorable early incident came when local excitement at the lifeboat returning to the harbour nearly ended in tragedy.
He said: ‘We were towing a boat back from a call out and people wanted to see what was going on. The inshore had departed for the Broad Haven when a young boy came cycling down to see what happened, hit a mooring line and he and his bike went into the harbour. Gary Fairbairn, out current coxswain, jumped in after him and managed to keep him afloat until the lifeboat came back round. The boy made a full recovery – but Gary was told he would have to pay for a replacement pager that was still in his pocket!’
Gordon added: ‘Some jobs come out of nowhere, One Sunday we were scattering ashes for a former crew member off the all-weather boat when I had to take over as helm on the inshore to deal with people cut off by the tide, Among them was an uncommunicative 14-year-old autistic girl. It was unusual because we weren’t able to tell her what we were going to do. It showed me that sometimes you just have to resolve a situation, you can’t always explain it.
‘On another occasion, we had to deal with a man who suffered serious blisters on his feet after standing on sand heated by a barbecue. I remember carrying him over the water to the boat delighted that he wasn’t heavy! Rough seas I can take for granted, I’m quite comfortable in that situation, but it’s the medical jobs that stick in my head the most because without us being there the situation could be so much worse.’
As well as collecting his 20-year medal, Gordon also received a Coronation Medal. These were also presented to Alan Blair, Gary Fairbairn, Andrzej Hajduk, Laura Kirkham, David Koch, Adrian Lavery, Gordon Mackay, Iain McDougall, Gerard McPhillips, Rebecca Miller, Alistair Punton, Douglas Wight, Ian Wilson and Chris Woods and, in their absence, to Dave Anderson, John-Robert Eunson, Jamie Forrester, Denholm Horsburgh, Allan Ross and Henry Weaver and to medics Neil Black and Rob Campbell. Certificates of Service vellums were presented to Elspeth Haston (for 11 years’ service), Ross McMullen (20 years’ service) and Kenny Peters (17 years’ service) and, in their absence, to Kevin Keillor, David Kittrick Snr and David Kittrick Jnr.
A letter of thanks was also issued, in his absence, to Kevan Jamieson, who was also awarded a Coronation Medal.
Notes to Editors
Established in 1808, 16 years before the formation of the RNLI, Dunbar Lifeboat Station is one of the oldest in Scotland and is located on the south side of the mouth of the Firth of Forth. Since its formation, its volunteer crews have been honoured with 12 awards for gallantry.
It operates two lifeboats – the Trent class all-weather lifeboat (ALB) John Neville Taylor, moored at Torness Power Station, and the D-class inshore lifeboat (ILB) David Lauder, which launches from Dunbar Harbour.
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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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