Published: Thursday, 14th August, 2008 08:10
Living Link to Laing
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President of Dunbar RNLI, Ivor McPhillips (left), former coxswain Noel Wright, and Barbara Reeves examine a document showing her great-great-great grandfather’s appointment to the town’s first lifeboat crew
A DESCENDANT of Dunbar RNLI’s first coxswain met present crewmen on Sunday – just weeks before the lifeboat station’s bicentennial celebrations.
Barbara Reeves’ great-great-great grandfather, David Laing, was a towering figure in the 1808 inaugural Dunbar lifeboat crew.
So significant was his appointment that, 200 years on, at the forthcoming RNLI bash on August 30, a dozen town leaders and residents will don Georgian period costumes to recreate a scene which saw him receive the unit’s first lifeboat.
Mrs Reeves, an amateur genealogist, travelled from Southampton to Dunbar last week to meet prominent local historian David Anderson, hoping to learn more about her celebrated ancestor.
“The trip to Dunbar was arranged before I realised it was such an important anniversary,” she said.
Meeting the current lifeboat team was “brilliant” and a “real link to the past”, said the 74-year-old. “I’m just sorry I did not have more time to spend with them but it was a real honour.”
The re-enactment is part of a packed weekend of celebrations entitled ‘Dunbar 200’.
Present-day coxswain Gary Fairbairn will take on the role of David Laing, while community council chairman, Stephen Bunyan, will play the 19th century town provost, Christopher Middlemass.
As part of a symbolic harbourside ceremony on August 30, Mr Bunyan will present an oar to the coxswain.
Kicking off the bonanza weekend is a family ceilidh at Hallhill Healthy Living Centre from 7.30pm to midnight on Friday, August 29. Tickets are available at the lifeboat shop.
On the Saturday (August 30) Dunbar Royal British Legion Pipe Band will led a procession of town leaders, former lifeboat queens, ex-RNLI crew members and representatives from the emergency services from the High Street to the harbour from 2pm.
A restored RNLI lifeboat from the mid-19th century – the ‘William Riley of Leamington and Birmingham’ – will also be showcased in the parade.
Bringing up the rear in the procession will be the Monktonhall Colliery Brass Band.
The parade will terminate at the harbour where it is hoped up to 2,000 visitors will enjoy a ‘Party at the Pier’ providing live music, refreshments, fireworks, plus the former herring drifter turned floating museum, the Reaper.
For children there will be face-painting, a bouncy castle and a carousel.
President of Dunbar RNLI, Ivor McPhillips, was keen to stress the weekend festivities is not a fundraising event but an opportunity for the lifeboat unit to repay residents for their unflinching support spanning two centuries.
“Everyone is invited to the party not just people from Dunbar but the county as a whole,” he said.
“The very first lifeboat in Dunbar was bought with money from people from all over the county and this 200th anniversary celebration is our way of saying a big ‘thank you’ to everyone for their support.”
“Dunbar is one of the oldest established lifeboats stations in the UK and we are very proud to be at this stage – it’s an institution which has brought great honour to East Lothian.”
A service of praise and thanksgiving will be held at the Harbour on August 31 at 2.30pm.
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Honoured by Her Majesty