Long service award for Eastbourne lifeboat shorehelper
Dick Guy, senior member of Eastbourne lifeboat’s shore based team, has been presented with a bar to add to his existing long service badge to commemorate nearly 40 years continuous voluntary service which spans three generations of lifeboats in the town.
Dick, who works for local firm Alfa Laval, volunteered to join Eastbourne RNLI’s lifeboat crew in 1974 and followed in the footsteps of his father who served in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. When Dick first joined, both boats were based at Fisherman’s Green and the then allweather lifeboat was the Watson class ‘Beryl Tollemache’. In those days launching an all weather lifeboat (ALB) was a much more complicated and labour intensive operation than it is today involving up to 15 volunteers. Over the years Dick progressed to senior launcher until operations were transferred to Sovereign Harbour in 2003. With Dick’s encouragement both his sons (pictured with Operations Manager Paul Metcalfe) also joined the service; Dan is now full time mechanic and a deputy coxswain and Tim a volunteer crewman aboard the ALB.