Scotland’s oldest serving lifeboat crew member will represent the Royal National Lifeboat Institution at the Cenotaph in London this Remembrance Sunday in a historic first for the charity.
Arbroath lifeboat mechanic Ron Churchill is one of 19 people from across the UK and Ireland who will be at Whitehall on behalf of the RNLI, the first time the charity has been represented in the commemoration.
Ron, 64, has been a volunteer lifeboat crew member at Arbroath RNLI station for 35 years.
He joined the crew on May 2 1981 and became emergency mechanic for the all-weather lifeboat in September 1995.
Ron then became third mechanic in 2000, second mechanic in 2004 and took on the job of full-time mechanic at the station on December 2 2013.
From 1970 until 1982, Ron served in 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery and has three campaign medals to his name, including one for service in the Falklands War.
During the conflict he was among the first to set foot on the Falkland Islands, having also completed several tours in Northern Ireland during his military career.
Ron said: “I am very proud and humbled to have been invited to take part in the remembrance ceremony, not least because it is the first time the RNLI has been involved.”
Ron’s son, Ron Jnr, is also a crew member at the station and is following in his father’s footsteps having recently become second mechanic of the Arbroath lifeboat.
Although thousands of RNLI volunteers have publicly attended Remembrance Sunday events throughout history, this weekend is the first time the RNLI has been formally invited to take part in the service and parade, joining 48 other organisations and associations who will also be officially represented.
The RNLI played its own role in the famed Dunkirk ‘little ships’ evacuation in 1940 when 20 lifeboats were among the 700 private boats that sailed from Ramsgate to Dunkirk between May 26 and June 4 1940 as part of Operation Dynamo, helping to rescue more than 338,000 British and French soldiers who were trapped on the beaches there during the Second World War.
RNLI chief executive Paul Boissier said: “It fills me with immense pride that we will be formally represented in the Cenotaph service as part of the annual commemoration.
“This is the first time in history the RNLI will be represented and I know that on the day our volunteers thoughts will be with the many millions who gave their own lives so that today we can enjoy the freedom we have”.
