South Queensferry man Jonathan Beamish has been presented with a RNLI Certificate of Service Award.
Beamish was a Queensferry crew member from 2000 to 2010, and during his service the Lifeboat rescued 30 lives from shipwreck. He was a crew member on two very contrasting rescues.
In the floods a few years ago two men were attempting to reach their boat anchored a Cramond which was in danger of being swept from her mooring, when they themselves were swept out to sea in their dinghy. The RNLI Queensferry Lifeboat crew with Jonathan aboard managed to intercept the dinghy and safely returned them ashore at Cramond in very difficult conditions.
The other incident was in response to a Coastguard call that a vessel was spotted drifting in the main shipping channel in the Forth. Jonathan and the crew after a search found the offending vessel which turned out to be a man being swept along in the tide in an inflatabe armchair. He had been blown out to sea in an offshore wind from Newhaven. Both he and his inflatable armchair were also safely returned ashore.
These are just two of the many and varied rescues in which Jonathan was involved as a crew member on Scotland’s busiest RNLI Lifeboat. Jonathan is still saving, but is now pounds as he is the RNLI Queensferry Lifeboat Station treasurer.
