A SCHOOLBOY has become Scotland’s youngest RNLI lifeboat volunteer – but his face is more than a little familiar to the crew.

Kieran Fairbairn is still at Dunbar Grammar School but has been given permission to respond to emergencies – even if it means racing from the classroom.

The teenager, who turned 17 in August, has begun his RNLI training and will serve on both of Dunbar’s two lifeboats – the all-weather (ALB) and the D-class inshore (ILB).

Anyone looking to join the RNLI must be at least 17, with Kieran receiving his pager a month after his birthday.

And he has some big boots to fill, with his dad Gary and great-great-great grandfather awarded medals for bravery after daring rescues at sea.

Kieran, who will link up with his dad, the lifeboat’s coxswain, said: “Lifeboats have been in my family since forever. I’ve grown up around it, I’ve been a herald for Dunbar’s Lifeboat Day celebrations and I used to watch my dad going off on rescues from our window.

“Now it feels fantastic to have the pager and be part of the crew myself.”

Kieran is in his final year at secondary school, studying National 5 maths and biology and Higher modern studies, but he might have to put his work on hold should the pager go off in class.

He said: “My teachers have given me special dispensation to be out of class.

“I might have to wait a while before I get my first shout but I hope, with the training I have to do, when the time comes I’ll be ready.”

Although lifeboats have been in the Fairbairn family’s blood, Gary, 48, says it wasn’t a given that his son would follow in his footsteps.

The full-time coxswain and volunteer for 23 years said: “It came as a shock to me, to be honest, when he asked to join. I had asked him if he was interested in the past but he never showed much enthusiasm. I wasn’t going to push him. It always had to be up to him.

“And we are very grateful to have the understanding and co-operation of his teachers at Dunbar Grammar School.”

The Fairbairn name is so synonymous with saving lives at sea in Dunbar the town named a street – Fairbairn Way – in their honour.

Gary, whose daughter Jodi, 14, is also “desperate to join” the RNLI, was awarded the bronze medal – and his crew medal certificates – for bravery after the rescue in May 2009 of a couple from their stricken yacht in force nine winds and 10-metre waves.

More than a century before, in 1905, Walter Fairbairn was awarded the silver medal for helping save the lives of 40 men in a seagoing yacht that had run adrift.

Gary’s dad David also served on the crew in the 1980s.

But Gary said there would be no favouritism towards his son, adding: “Nothing will change. Whatever the shout and whatever the emergency I have to pick the best crew available for the job in hand.

“But at Dunbar, every volunteer gets their chance to be involved on our shouts.”

Although Gary is proud to see Kieran maintaining the connection, he said there were times the job really brought home to him the importance of family.

He said: “Some jobs have been so rough I’ve kept the details from my family and one job sticks in my memory because we were tasked to a boy who’d fallen from cliffs who was the same age as Kieran.

“I immediately thought: ‘That could have been him.’

“Will it be at the back of my mind, that I’m potentially taking my son into a dangerous situation? Of course.

“In the old days multiple family members were not permitted on shouts in case of loss, but today the boats are a lot safer and sometimes it can pay to have someone you know well alongside you.

“My brother-in-law Kenny Peters was my mechanic here on many rescues – including the yacht episode.”