The end of January saw an amazing milestone for one RNLI volunteer crewmember as he reached the golden anniversary of joining the charity as a lifeboat man.
Brian Jeffrey celebrated his 65th birthday with fellow crewmembers in a ‘This is your life’ style presentation. Along with a celebratory cake for his 65 years, Brian was also presented with a 50 years of service framed award from RNLI Operations Director Michael Vlasto.
A selection of crew new and old remembered Brian’s service on the inshore lifeboat and assistant mechanic on the bigger all weather lifeboat, before taking his current position in the station as winch man as part of the shore crew.
Brian first joined in the footsteps of his father and became crew on The William Gammon in 1961. He has some fantastic stories of his time onboard The Pentland lifeboat which was used in the BBC drama ‘Ennels Point’. His departure from sea going crew in 2001 on Mumbles Tyne class lifeboat The Ethel Anne Measures left time for Brian to show thousands of school children The Mumbles lifeboats on guided tours over the years.
Brian said:
‘ It’s ironic that one of my fondest memories in the RNLI was being on TV for the ‘This is your life’ episode for Derrick Scott who was our coxswain at the time, so the crew thought it would be fun for me to have one of my own’ he laughs.
‘My dad was on the crew for 7 years and saved 65 lives, I was immensely proud of that’.
But Brian was too modest to hazard a guess of how many lives he’s saved over the last half a century.
Tim Conway Lifeboat Operations Manager at The Mumbles commented:
‘Brian is a credit to us all, his stories of past shouts have been eye opening sometimes and hysterically funny at others. He’s always shown a helping hand to new crew and fundraisers to ensure they feel a welcome addition to the team’.
