Torbay lifeboat trio honoured for decades of service

Three Torbay lifeboat volunteers have been honoured with special awards recognising up to 40 years of fundraising and support

Reporter:

Jim Parker

19 Aug 2025 4:04 PM

Email:

jim.parker@clearskypublishing.co.uk

Three volunteers who have spent decades raising money for the Torbay lifeboat have been saluted with special accolades.

The trio have been presented with long service awards for their sterling efforts.

40-year service awards were presented to Barbara and Dave Smithson who retired to Brixham in 2001.

Back in 1985 they were living in Solihull in the Midlands and as they had started chartering yachts abroad they decided to join the RNLI.

One of their neighbours called during a house to house collection and Barbara and Dave indicated their willingness to help.

They started off with a few roads locally and gradually expanded their patch over the years.

On moving to Brixham they visited the Lifeboat Station while some sort of fundraising was going on and met Shirley Wheeler (secretary at the time, later chairman) and Jack Lister (the Guild President) and said they would like to join and help with fundraising.

They started as house to house collectors and by the following year (2002) became the organisers for the Station house to house collections as the previous organisers who had done it for many years were finding it a struggle to keep up with all the handwritten lists and lots of paper.

In 2003 Shirley Wheeler took over as chairman and was looking for a new secretary so Barbara volunteered and took up the role in June 2003.

Then in August 2003 Dave took on the role of treasurer, a position he still holds to this day.

A few years later they were able to pass on responsibility for the house to house collections. Dave started emptying RNLI collection boxes in 2004.

In 2014 Barbara stood down as secretary but continued organising the cake stall at events which she still does to this day.

She also became a box collector in 2017 and resumed being secretary in April 2017 and only retired from this role in February this year.

Barbara also became a shop volunteer this year at the Kings Quay RNLI shop. All in all Dave and Barbara are very valued members of the Torbay Lifeboat Fundraisers.

Another long service award for 20 years service was presented to Annette Wiseman. When she first joined what was originally the Brixham Lifeboat Guild she helped with coffee mornings and the raffle. Annette then went on to become Membership Secretary, a position she held for 10 years.

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