Prestigious Long Service Awards for Coleraine Coastguard volunteers

Chris Little and James Marshall have each been recognised for completing forty years’ service, while Alistair Simpson and Stephen Smith have been recognised for each completing thirty years’ service.

These four Coastguard Rescue Officers have worked closely together since joining as teenagers, initially as members of the Castlerock and Portrush Rescue Teams, before both teams merged to form the current Coleraine Coastguard Rescue Team.

During that period they have witnessed the transformation of the Coastguard Service into the hi-tech organisation that it is today - a far cry from the days when callouts had to be done by landline calls or by firing a maroon (which produced a loud explosion); when ropes and pulleys were used, instead of helicopters, to rescue the crews of stranded vessels; when visual lookout watches were the norm, rather than the sophisticated electronic communication systems in use today.

As Coastguard volunteers, they have attended more than a thousand incidents, at all hours, and in all weathers, involving sinking or shipwrecked vessels, pleasure craft of all sizes in distress, crashed aircraft, swimmers in difficulty, searches for lost or missing persons, cliff and mud incidents, unexploded objects on the shoreline, coastal medical emergencies, not to mention numerous, trapped dogs and the occasional beached whale.

Whilst most incidents have had a very positive outcome, there has also, sadly, been a significant number of fatalities.

Liaison with the other emergency services is becoming ever closer, as is the use of the Coastguard’s own flight of ultra-modern rescue helicopters.

Alistair, Chris, James and Stephen have maintained their voluntary service alongside their full time jobs, being employed respectively as a NIAS Emergency Medical Technician, a teacher at Limavady Grammar School, a Forest Service Officer and an NHSST Senior Support Worker in Mental Health and Physical Disability.

Area Commander Robert Steventon, who presented the long service awards, paid this tribute to the recipients: “Being the Area Commander for Northern Ireland can be a very demanding role, with lots of teams and incidents throughout the Area.  

“To have a team like Coleraine in your area, and especially these four Coastguard Rescue Officers, makes the job so much more enjoyable, because you have the confidence that everything will be done with great vigour and respect and they will not stop until the incident is resolved.

“No matter what time of the day or night, they will respond to the call for help. 40, 30 and 20 year service awards are not given out lightly.  A lot of people don’t get anywhere near this amount of time done, so to have two 40 years and two 30 years in a single team is just incredible.  

“I couldn’t be more proud of them and the local community should be too.”