Honour brings pride to one of the ‘family’

1:06pm Friday 25th January 2008

IT WAS the action of one of his grandsons that brought it home to Roy Barker that he had been made an MBE in the New Year Honours List for services to maritime safety.

"At first I found it difficult to believe, but a short while later, on arriving back at Manchester Airport from holiday, one of my grandsons came out of the crowd holding aloft a card banner reading Welcome home, Grandad MBE'.

"It was then, with a lump in my throat, that I realised that this really was happening to me. I have loved working with the RNLI, and have been fully supported by my wife, Davina, but who would have thought that someone who started out as a motor mechanic with only a City and Guilds motor engineering exam to his name, would achieve an MBE?

"It makes me very proud to receive this honour and I feel quite humbled. I just wish that the rest of the people I have crewed with over the years could be here to celebrate with me, because being a lifeboat volunteer is to be part of a dedicated family of very special people.

"Not many from the original crew that I served with on the lifeboat the City of Leeds are still with us."

Mr Barker's interest began when he was apprenticed as a motor mechanic to the then full-time mechanic of the Redcar lifeboat.

His duties were to assist in the maintenance and preparation of the lifeboat.

After a term served on the shore crew as first reserve, his first service on the lifeboat was on December 14, 1955, when the lifeboat was called out to look for a Whitby-based trawler which had been missing for 24 hours in a full gale.

"I was the last person to hold the position of bowman on Redcar lifeboats. During my time, I served four coxswains on two boats, namely the City of Leeds and the Aguila Wren, for about 27 years," Mr Barker said.

"The lifeboats then were open boats with a top speed of seven knots and no radar, and our shore contact was Cullercoats radio station.

In those days, the lifeboat was indeed the last hope as there were no helicopters and we relied on our flank stations for back-up - Teesmouth and Runswick Bay.

"There were seven people to a crew and the call-out to man the boat was signalled by the firing of maroons, which were live mortars and could be heard for miles. You just left what you were doing and went straight to the boathouse.

Our best time from call to launch was seven minutes.

"The most inconvenient occasion was when I was sitting in the dentist's chair. But my wife was quite used to me jumping up and disappearing from meals, the cinema - whenever I was needed, day or night."

Most times when the crew was called out, it was to search for vessels that were missing.

"My most frightening call-out was to search for a boat three miles out in the shipping lane in thick fog, when a supertanker passed very close by," said Mr Barker.

"The funniest occasion was when we launched to look for a local boat, and then discovered that one crew member' on the lifeboat was actually a somewhat inebriated total stranger who had jumped on board with the rest of us."

Mr Barker said that after active service for 27 years, he became involved with other RNLI activities and still regards it as a privilege to continue to be part of such a professional organisation, and to have been a member of such a great family for 55 years.

In 2002, he spearheaded a committee to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Zetland lifeboat coming to Redcar, and also organised the commissioning of a painting by John Freeman of Whitby which forms the centrepiece on the staircase at Morrison's supermarket at Redcar.

A limited edition of 500 prints, one for each life the Zetland is credited with saving, were sold to raise funds for the RNLI. The Zetland is now on the National Historic Ships Core Collection list of outstanding historical vessels, and is the only one of her kind left.

In 2003, Mr Barker was awarded the Silver Medal for services to the RNLI.

On October 23, 2005, he initiated celebrations commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, when the Zetland would have been in full service.

"Looking forward now, I would like to see the future of the Zetland lifeboat secured. She is a valuable fundraising asset for the RNLI, which is still completely dependent on private funding," said Mr Barker.

"My love affair with the old Zetland lifeboat, in service from 1802 to 1874, began when I was sent to clean her in readiness for a flag day and discovered the builder's nameplate and boat number under several layers of paint. This proved beyond doubt the Zetland is the oldest and only survivor of Henry Greathead's lifeboats.

"She is now the centrepiece of a thriving museum in the Zetland boathouse, is indeed the jewel in Redcar's crown and is testament to the memory of her past crew members."