Royal National Lifeboat Institution
Littlehampton
     

 

The Crew

John Jones is the guv'nor. As the Lifeboat Operations Manager, he is appointed by the RNLI to run the lifeboat station, and is the primary contact for the coastguard when a launch is requested. John has always worked with boats and currently with the harbour board, previously he worked for lifeboat builder William Osborne Ltd, and also for the RNLI.

When the RNLI decided to re-establish a lifeboat station in Littlehampton in the 1960s, they turned to Peter Cheney. He was responsible for getting the lifeboat station up and running, and became the Honorary Secretary, running the show for the next 25 years. Peter is now the chairman of the Littlehampton Lifeboat Station committee, and last year was appointed an Honorary Life Governor of the RNLI in recognition of his service. The award was made by the Duke of Kent at a ceremony in London.

Deputy launching authority Geoff Warminger has been involved with the lifeboat station as crew and DLA for 36 years. Geoff is also in charge of tea consumption, a skill that he has honed with great determination. Having worked in the construction industry, Geoff has now retired so that he can devote more of his time to tea.

Nick White rejoined the team as deputy launching authority, after a break of a few years since leaving the crew. Nick served as crew at Littlehampton and Weston-super-Mare for 22 years and is responsible for writing all this rubbish.

Retired merchant seafarer Jim Petty initially joined the team as administration officer to help to file service reports and maintain station records. He has also become the station training co-ordinator passing on some of his wealth of experience, getting stuck into subjects such as navigation and boat handling theory with our crew.

The station medic is Gordon Byars . His duties include conducting the regular medical examinations that all crew must undergo, and can be asked to go to sea if a doctor is needed to attend a casualty. Gordon also plays a part in medical training for the crew.

Steve Strickland is the station treasurer.

Our honorary PR man is Eddie Mitchell. A photographer for the Brighton Argus and its sister papers, Eddie's job is to make sure that the community doesn't forget that Littlehampton has one of the busiest lifeboat stations in the country.

Ivan Greer has been a lifeboatman since 1991, and is also one of the lifeboat station's two mechanics who are responsible for maintaining both boats, their engines and equipment. Ivan works for the local council. Liam Clarke has spent recent summers as a beach safety lifeguard, and now he has a grown up job as a firefighter.

Our senior helmsman is Andy Harris who has been on the crew since 1997, and runs his own fishing boat from Littlehampton. Firefighter Paul James has been on the crew for the last five years. Ross Bowman has been a crewman since 1997. He is a building site supervisor, and is an experienced diver.

We have recently lost the services of Lee Street, one of our long serving crewmen, whose enthusiasm and drive will be much missed. Lee has a senior role with the West Sussex fire service. and has always been a bit of an action man. He also runs RYA seamanship courses in his spare time, climbs mountains, skis, and sails his own boat.

Property developer Oliver Griffiths joined the crew is 2002. A long-term boater, he is rumoured to yearn for the day when lifeboats abandon engines and return to sail. On the crew for the last four of years, Gavin Simmons assures us that he is the perfect example of handsomeness. In his spare time he works for the harbour board. The legendary Ritchie Southerton used to be a crewman on one of the full-time River Thames lifeboats, and now he's a policeman and bourbon biscuit connoisseur. Ritchie has been a lifeboatman since 1997. Until recently a student, Olly Clarke graduated following the submission of his thesis entitled ‘The Impact of Beer on Academia'.

It has been necessary to step up our recruitment over the last couple of years because of the large number of calls. Early on, Jenny Cradock, motor mechanic Keith Booth, and police officers Rob Rollins and Chris Booth joined us. Later, two further groups of volunteers completed their initial training to become enrolled crew. Mia Dorricot, ex Royal Navy; college lecturer Laura Robinson; Army Physical Training Corps instructor Jon Street, architect Clive Lindsell and guest house proprietor Jon Maidment. All of these have supplemented their local training by attending a week long course at the RNLI's Lifeboat Training College at Poole.

Another induction training course is under way, and over several months our new boys will follow a structured series of theory and practical sessions before they are assessed by the senior crew, and then by the RNLI's professional training staff. Police officer Steve Edwards is married with three children; Tony Da Silva is a prison officer; and Rob Devo and Lee Harrison each gained a lot of sea safety experience as beach lifeguards, and now both are students at Chichester University, Rob is training to be a PE teacher, and Lee is studying adventure education, and we all want to know what that means!

Shore Helpers

Apart from crewing the boats, we depend upon our shore helpers to support the work of those who actually go afloat. The boats have to be launched, so the tractors have to be driven. Fuel has to be obtained, records have to be kept, and the boathouse has to be swept. The crew get involved with all of these tasks, but are dependant upon the support of our band of shore helpers:

Kerosene Ken Greer has been unwell for a while and much missed around the boathouse. For many years, he has been responsible for maintaining our fuel stocks, and was our boathouse attendant, conducting boathouse visits for any groups that want a guided tour of the lifeboat station. Ken remains the station custodian of ancient jokes.

Crucial to any lifeboat station are those members of the shore team who don't go to sea, but who make everything happen back on dry land. Michelle Greer, Ivan's wife, is magic at driving tractors, just keep out of her way; garage manager Tim Clarke (Liam and Olly's dad), and harbour worker Garry Garner are our other tractor drivers, and former soldier, paramedic and merchant seaman Peter Nock is a shore helper.

Trainees

We are always on the lookout for new crew so that we can be sure that we continue to achieve the speed of response that everyone expects. If you would like to find out about joining our lifeboat crew, find out more from the crew recruitment page.

Previous Crew / Officials

 

 

 





 


John Jones


Geoff Warminger
 


Nick White


Peter Cheney
 

Oliver Griffiths


Ivan Greer

 

Liam Clarke

Andy Harris
 


Ritchie Southerton


Paul James

 

Ross Bowman

Tim Clarke
 

Jim Petty

Jon Street
 

Gavin Simmons

Olly Clarke
 

Rob Rollins

Ken Greer
 

Chris Booth

Keith Booth
 

Clive Lindsel

Jenny Cradock
 


Garry Garner


Laura Robinson

 

Mia Dorricot


Peter Nock

 

Jon Maidment

Rob Devo
 

Steve Edwards

Tony Da Silva

 

Michelle Greer

Lee Harrison

 


 

 

 

 
    How Things Happen
    Our Crew
    Station History
    Call Reports
    Picture Gallery
 

  News & Events
    Crew Recruitment
    Contact Us
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       

© 2005 WPS Media and Littlehampton RNLI