When 84-year-old Peter Murray MBE reflects on his lifelong association with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in Anstruther, the highlight of his RNLI career came in August 1991 when he sailed the RNLB Kingdom of Fife into his home port for the first time.
Three decades on from what he describes as “as one of the proudest days” of his life, Peter has been looking on proudly as his eldest granddaughter, Louise Whiteman, follows in his footsteps as volunteer crew aboard that very lifeboat.
Now, with Anstruther’s new state-of-the art £2.5 million Shannon-class lifeboat due to sail into port on April 14, and work due to begin on a new £7 million lifeboat station near the harbour, the pair are excitedly looking forward to a new chapter in Anstruther RNLI history.
The new boat, the Robert and Catherine Steen, will halve response times in what is believed to be the UK’s second busiest waterway.
But it’s also led the pair to reflect on the ongoing importance of Anstruther RNLI to the community and the four generations of their family that have volunteered.
The Courier sat down with Peter and Louise at Anstruther lifeboat station as the RNLI continues its 200th anniversary celebrations.
Family history rooted in East Neuk of Fife herring industry
Peter, who will turn 85 in May, has lived in the East Neuk all his life.
His family history is rooted in the herring industry.
When the industry went into decline and his grandfather known as ‘Venus Peter’ lost his herring boat ‘The Venus’ when it was in collision with a Grimsby trawler off Flamborough head on August 22, 1929, his father was encouraged to start a trade, going into joinery instead.
During the Second World War, Peter’s father went back into boat building – joining Miller of St Monans, which got the contract to build motor torpedo boats.
Born in Cellardyke, Peter lived in St Monans for six years where he started school.
They stayed there with his grandmother, moving back along the coast when the war ended.
After leaving Waid Academy aged 15, Peter went straight into his dad’s joinery business, Murray & Wilson, which is run by his son Pete to this day.
It was in 1961, however, that Peter first started volunteering with the RNLI – following in the yellow welly steps of his relative Jimmy Jack, on his mum’s side, who had also been an Anstruther lifeboat volunteer.
“I joined as a launcher, so I was always keen on the sea,” the father of two, grandfather of four and great grandfather of three told The Courier.
“Maroons used to be fired. It wasn’t pagers at that time. You came down and fired the rockets.
“If that happened and you were down at the harbour, you just rushed to see if you could be helpful. That’s how it started. I showed willing.
“It was the same with my son, who sailed for 26 years. He got involved. Then my granddaughter got involved.”
What shouts stand-out from Peter’s time with Anstruther RNLI?
Peter first became a crew member aboard the Liverpool-class James and Ruby Jackson under coxswain Philip Anderson.
He later served on The Doctors and then the Kingdom of Fife, helping save many lives. He took on a role that no longer exists in the RNLI – the bowman – who looked after all the flotsam, jetsam, ropes, heaving lines etc.
From there he became a second coxswain, and then coxswain from 1974-94.
Asked what his first call out was, Peter laughs: “Not a clue! I can’t mind what I did last Tuesday!”
However, he does remember plenty shouts from the early days when the maroons were fired and you “dropped everything and ran”.
Call outs that stick in his mind range from the search for a missing canoeist to the successful recovery of a man who fell ill aboard the HMS Diamond one night in 1964.
On that shout, they ventured out into pea soup fog, using local knowledge and basic manual navigation techniques, to rendezvous with the war ship two miles due south of Anstruther.
However, it’s the “bad shouts” that tend to stick in the mind.
They include the search for the converted trawler, the Medusa, during a storm in Aberlady Bay in the Firth of Forth.
The only thing they found that night was a lifebelt.
Two men drowned, and neither their bodies, nor the boat, were ever recovered.
Anstruther RNLI is ‘the most important thing in the East Neuk’
Peter, who became honorary secretary and chairman of the Anstruther RNLI fundraising branch after retiring from the sea in 1994, describes the changes in technology and communications over the years as “unbelievable”.
When he started, his first boat didn’t even have a cabin or radar.
“Not like the guys now with double glazing and central heating!” he laughs.
One thing that hasn’t changed though is the importance of the RNLI which Peter describes as “the most important thing in the East Neuk”.
Also essential is the support of the local community, both for RNLI volunteers and support through fundraising.
Peter’s eldest granddaughter Louise was just four years old when the Kingdom of Fife was brought ashore by her coxswain grandfather in 1991.
The mother-of-two, who turns 37 on the day the new boat comes ashore, has fond memories of the “hype and bunting”.
A former pupil of Cellardyke Primary and Waid Academy who works for her grandad in his other business – Peter Murray funeral services – she joined the Anstruther RNLI as crew in November 2016, with ambitions to become a mechanic.
Growing up, she spent a lot of her time with her grandparents which involved being at the lifeboat shed. Her gran Ruth was instigator of the old Anstruther RNLI galas.
It’s inevitable the RNLI “gets in the blood”, she said, adding that her now 18-year-old art student daughter Isla was even christened aboard the Kingdom of Fife.
But that close community involvement is not a bad thing.
Louise looked up to her grandad with respect as an RNLI man – and still does
Louise laughs though that while her grandad is long retired from the sea, he still comes down to “torment” today’s crews – who greatly value his stories and experience.
“I was in amongst it all from a very young age,” she said, “whether it was coming to watch grandad Pete coming in from shouts, or doing training, or helping my gran on the stalls on gala days or fundraising events. I’ve always been in or around this building.
“Growing up, I looked up to my grandad with a lot of respect for what he did on the lifeboat.
“To me, he was a hero.
“At some point it was very natural to say ‘when can I have a pair of yellow wellies?’
“And here I am now, trying to fill his very big boots – and I will never fill them!”
How important is the arrival of the new Anstruther RNLI boat?
Louise, who crews the all-weather boat, will be aboard the Kingdom of Fife when the new boat arrives on April 14.
The new technologically-advanced boat will make a real difference to response times.
Louise has been involved in all manner of rescues.
These range from towing huge fishing vessels that have lost power, rescuing people from the Elie Chain Walk to the “touch and go” rescue of a “very very lucky” inflatable paddle boarder last summer.
The woman had been blown 2.5 miles off Kingsbarns beach and was submerged in the water with no lifesaving equipment.
If she hadn’t been spotted by a caddie through the viewfinder at Kingsbarns golf course, and if the lifeboat hadn’t got there in time, they’d never have found her.
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