Brian Hadler Five Decades of Serice at Whitstable RNLI

Brian recalls “I had been off trawling and oyster dredging with Bill Coleman onboard the Gamecock and I knew Mike Judge and Mick Gambrill who were washing down the launching tractor. They asked if I had ever thought of joining the lifeboat crew. This was something that I had never thought of and although I had been helping on the Gamecock and had some knowledge of boat handling and the sea off Whitstable and my only other maritime experience was a couple of hours sailing course at Tankerton Bay Sailing Club post my GCSE’s, I was otherwise completely green”.

However I wrote to Barry Hardy who was the lifeboat honorary secretary and was invited to a meeting in the yacht club during which I was asked to leave the room and then invited back to be told I’d been accepted”.

“I started as a shore helper in July 1975 during which period I learnt to drive the ‘Case’ launching tractor and after 3-years got made up to the sea going crew”.

“In those day’s training was reliant on one being competent, all the other crew having been fishermen, harbour staff or others connected to the sea but fortunately I had learnt a lot from Bill about boat handling, knots, tides and the weather”.

Brian can’t remember his first call as crew but after some years was offered the position of helmsman. “I can recall my first call in that role” he says “it was a launch at about midnight to a woman in distress onboard a boat in Milton Creek off The Swale. It was dead low water and we had to take the station doctor with us and then find our way to the casualty with whom we were in radio contact. I was helped by the fact that we could see all the lights around Ridham Dock just beyond Milton Creek and we didn’t get lost so we managed to calm down and treat the woman. Returning to the station however, back down The Swale was with few lights to assist navigation an experience but I got the boat back safely”.

He also recalls a call at 6.00am one winters morning. “It was snowing and having no car I ran to the station and was the first to arrive. We took the boat to a report of a a male unwell on a craft in The Swale in whiteout conditions. All three of us on the crew that morning had beards and on return to station they were full of snow, we all looked like Father Christmas!”.

Like many RNLI volunteers Brian (a carpenter) was often called away from work. “I was hanging some doors one afternoon when the call came to a casualty on a yacht suffering from hypothermia. He had been over the side to sort out a propellor problem but became hypothermic. He managed to get back onboard his craft and call for help before passing out. We came alongside his vessel and transferred him to the lifeboat and subsequently ashore at Harty Ferry where the R.A.F Sea King helicopter arrived to take him to hospital. The helicopter landed in the car park but the downdraft blasted away the rubbish bins, quite a spectacular sight witnessed only by us and the sheep. I had to return to the house where I had been working and fiinsh hanging the door to a babies bedroom at 8.00pm that evening!”.

Brians first aid skill also have come in handy when he was part of the crew when the lifeboat went to the assistance of a catamaran taking in water off Herne Bay and in torrential rain. The lifeboat crew took the craft to Herne Bay before transfering the three crew to the lifeboat to bring them back to Whitstable. The catarmaran skipper was suffering from hypothemia and Brian attended to the man until the lifeboat returned to station to be met by an ambulance crew.

Brian was among the first members of the Whitstable crew to attend helm training courses at Cowes during which he took part in a capsize exercise where an Atlantic class lifeboat was deliberatly capsized and the crew thrown into the water. They had to swim back to the boat, right the craft and reboard. This was in the winter 0f 1986, the coldest since 1963, “I have never been so cold” he recalls.”Protective clothing for crews has come a long way since then” he comments.

He also went on a first aid course at the Royal Navy's 'Air Medical School' where the casualties had very realistic simulated injuries, “It was 'hard core' training he said.

Besides being part of the operational crew Brian has over the years taken part in numerous fund raising activities for the station and RNLI, including carnivals, street collections and quizzes but perhaps the most memorable was a row around the Isle of Sheppey with fellow crewmember Mike Judge in a clinker built rowing boat built by Bill Coleman as a tender to the Oyster yawl 'Gamecock', a feat which many said could not be done due to currents and tides howver Brian and Mike completed the row in 11 hours 50 minutes!.

Brian stepped down from from the sea going crew in 2000 but took over as a tractor driver and 'Deputy Launching Authority a role that he has held until retirement from the operational side of the station.

Whitstable Lifeboat Launch Authority Mike Judge (who has also completed 50-years at the station) daid “As Brian completes his operational service. it should be noted that very few people in the modern age of the RNLI are likely to be able to encompass so many different elements of volunteering for the RNLI”

“Having started as a 'Launcher', quickly moving onto ILB Crew then ILB Helm. Having completed over 22 years of sea service, Brian then took up the role of Tractor Driver to continue the shore element of getting the lifeboat launched and recovered”.

“Throughout this time Brian was fully engaged in many of the fundraising and PR activity so vital for the ongoing existence of the Institution. Carnival floats being constructed and costumes worn, rattling the lifeboat box in the High St on the old Flag Days, emptying collection boxes from some of the pubs (a keen fan of real ale). Pub quizzes, darts matches and all sorts of events requiring the presence of authentic lifeboat crew, and being able to speak from first hand experience”.

“Much of this unnoticed by many, as is the role Brian is about to vacate, having done it for the last 12 years, as a Launching Authority, providing cover to the Operational Team whenever required.

A quiet, steady and humorous man who has gone about his life-boating and volunteering career in a steadfast manner, throughout all the changes that have been undertaken over his 50 years on the station.

Old school, and I commend and thank him very much for it”.

RNLI media contacts

• Chris Davey, Volunteer Lifeboat Press Officer, Whitstable Lifeboat Station.
  07741 012004/ [email protected]

• Julie Rainey - Regional Communications Lead : 07827 358256

• Hatti Mellor - Regional Communications Manager :07724 801305

For enquiries outside normal business hours, contact the RNLI duty press officer on 01202 336789

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The RNLI charity saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 146,000 lives.

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