LOCAL HERO

After a lifetime in the Scillies, Kathleen is safe in the hands of a friend of the family that sailed her for over a century

- NIGEL SHARP

It seems astonishing to think of three generations of one family serving as coxswains at one lifeboat station for 71 consecutive years. However, Jim, ‘Father’ Matthew and ‘Boy’ Matthew (or Matt Jnr) Lethbridge did exactly that at St Mary’s in the Isles of Scilly from 1914 to 1985. Both Matthews were awarded Silver Medals and Matt Jnr was also awarded a Bronze Medal; and between them they received eight other RNLI awards. During the Second World War, Matt Jnr served in the RAF in air-sea rescue boats, which may, to some extent, have prepared him for the RNLI rescue operations that followed. Among the higher profile of those were the Torrey Canyon oil spill disaster in 1967; the rescue of an ITN television crew who were planning to film Francis Chichester at the end of his round the world voyage the same year; the 1979 Fastnet Race; and the crash of the helicopter on its way from Penzance to the Scillies in 1983. The following year, and just a year before he retired as coxswain, Matt appeared on television programme This Is Your Life, after presenter Eamonn Andrews sprung the customary surprise at the London Boat Show.