Memories

A few years ago whilst talking to a colleague at work, he told me that his sister had been rescued by the Coastguard and lifeboat back in the late sixties.

His sister, then in her teens had been out walking with her boyfriend around Ballard when something went wrong, night set in and of course the pair had not returned home to Poole.
Worried parents had called the Police and in turn the Lifeboat and Coastguard set out to search, up and down the cliffs they searched (my colleague remembers looking out of his window of his home in Poole at the search lights of the lifeboat).
Just as the search was about to be called off a hand was sighted amongst the rocks and the badly injured pair was taken by lifeboat to the slipway and a waiting ambulance. His sister was later transferred to Southampton for specialist treatment, and slowly recovered from the ordeal.

Having a rough date I started to search the records and found the very incident and showed him the records of that night, he took his mother to the lifeboat house and pointed out the rescue on the many boards around the boathouse.

Sadly just after this Christmas my colleague contacted me, saying his sister had sadly passed away following a long illness, the family were putting together a book of her life and asked if it was possible to have a copy of the records of that night when she nearly lost her life. With the help of Dave Turnbull who kindly took a picture of the board in the boathouse, I copied the records from our log and passed them on.
The request from the family is he that the story be told to ensure that others are aware of the risks around our coastline, even after 40 years one single event can have a huge impact on a family and a thank you to all those that put their time in to save others………