Amble man receives vellum award for a lifetime’s service with RNLI

Rodney Burge MBE was blown away after Amble RNLI members and his family met together to honour him.

Adrian Carey, head of RNLI South West region, presented Rodney with a Vellum which read ‘for commitment to both the institution and his fellow volunteers and his personal contribution which has helped the RNLI save lives at sea’.

Rodney also received a bottle of genuine Navy rum, which is now only available for similar occasions, and a crystal with a Shannon lifeboat etched inside the glass.

Speaking about the achievement, Rodney said: “It was nice to feel appreciated by everyone.

“There is only a few folk who truly know what happens aboard the boats and the effect it has on the crew.

"One of the finest compliments I’ve received came from a crewman’s wife saying how she knew that if her husband was onboard the boat with me in charge, she knew he was going to come home that night.”

Rodney’s granddaughter, Courtney Stewart, told The Ambler: “He was totally unaware of what was planned and it left him speechless. He was staggered by the number of people that showed up, which overwhelmed him a bit as he’s not used to people making such a fuss. He’s more used to just getting on with the job.”

After working onboard HMS Dreadnought, Britain’s first nuclear submarine, Rodney joined the Amble Lifeboat. He began as a crew member but progressed to a coxswain, a manager, a training officer and now Amble RNLI’s media officer.

Rodney joined the Amble Lifeboat crew in 1969 after leaving service in the Royal Navy onboard HMS Dreadnought, Britain’s first nuclear submarine. He then fulfilled his boyhood dream to join the lifeboat, starting out as a crew member, eventually moving up to coxswain, then applying his knowledge as manager and training officer and now he is Amble RNLI’s media officer. In 2021 he was awarded a 50 years’ service medal.

He also wrote a book, Amble and Hauxley Lifeboat Station, chronicling some of the incredible lifesaving duties carried out by volunteers of the RNLI from the mid-1800s to the present day.