Dedicated, experienced senior helm Trevor Bryant has retired from his post at Rye Harbour. In October 1985 Trevor joined the volunteer crew at Rye Harbour RNLI and began his training.
Throughout the years of service he showed dedication, integrity, excellent work practice, teamwork and professionalism. He was totally committed to saving lives at sea. He also spent many hours training new recruits as they came up through the ranks.
Trevor was involved in many interesting shouts, including saving the lives of two youngsters from Hastings. They were playing on the slipway and fell into the rushing waters of the River Rother and were soon swept out of their depth. The crew came to their aid and they were brought safely to shore and reunited with their anxious parents.
One of the most serious shouts he attended was to a fire on an angling boat that seriously injured four people and left four others struggling in the water.
Trevor was also involved in an exercise designed by the River Authority to test how all the agencies would cope with a major emergency on the River Rother. An RAF helicopter, two Coastguard units, the RNLI lifeboat, police cars and crew and the Rother Harbour launch all came together and worked in unison.
One of the strangest rescues was being called out to a horse that was one and a half miles out from the shore. It was brought in safely and was checked over by a local vet.
Tony Edwards, Local Operations Manager said of him, “Trevor has been a valuable asset to the station here at Rye Harbour for 33 years. He was a much respected and professional senior helm. He is now going to bring all the knowledge that he has accrued to his new role as DLA (Deputy Launch Authority).”
Image Credits: KT Bruce , John Minter .