An Angus volunteer lifeboat crewman has joined a select band by being awarded a medal recognising 30 years’ service.
Arbroath RNLI crew member Ron Churchill Sr joined as a crew member on the all-weather lifeboat, Duke of Montrose, in 1981.
Having moved to the area in the early 1970s while serving at RM Condor, Mr Churchill joked: ”To this day, I have no idea why I joined the RNLI, but I’m certainly glad I did.”
Now serving as second mechanic on the all-weather lifeboat at Arbroath, a position he has held since 2004, Mr Churchill has undertaken a variety of roles during his time, including navigator and first aider.
For the past 18 months he has also been the lifeboat training coordinator, and his dedication to the service was marked unofficially this week at the station.
Mr Churchill has been involved in some truly memorable ”shouts” throughout his years of volunteer service to the RNLI.
For him, the one that stands out was the first call-out on the station’s current all-weather lifeboat RNLB Inchcape in 1993.
He said: ”We had been called to assist in the rescue of two crew members from a capsized yacht off the coast at Carnoustie.
”One of the crew had made it back to shore on his own, but his friend was still in the water.
”When we located him he was practically on the surf line, which made it extremely precarious taking the all-weather boat in to pick him up.”
At one point the crew could feel the bottom of the boat bouncing on the sea bed.
He added: ”Thankfully, we managed to get the man out of the water safely without any lasting damage, either to him or the lifeboat, but it was touch and go for a while.”
Having already completed well over 1,000 hours in service and exercise at sea as a volunteer on the lifeboats, he has no desire to stop now.
Paying tribute to Mr Churchill, lifeboat operations manager Alex Smith said: ”Ron is a real crew man. We all have a huge amount of respect for him both as a valued and vital member of the lifeboat crew and as a person.”
Photo by Jim Ratcliffe