LIFESAVERS from the Mearns are to be honoured on a new RNLI memorial.
The memorial sculpture, to be unveiled in Autumn 2009 at the RNLI's Dorset headquarters, will pay tribute to those who gave their lives while helping to save others. The majority of names on the memorial will be RNLI volunteers from the United Kingdo
m and the Republic of Ireland, but other maritime lifesavers including those from HM Coastguard and other individuals recorded by the RNLI will also be remembered.
The RNLI invited submissions from artists for an inspirational design. A selection panel representing all areas of the RNLI chose a design by sculptor Sam Holland ARBS. Her evocative steel sculpture depicts a lifesaver in a boat, vulnerable to the elements, saving another from the water, and was thought to symbolise the history, and future, of the RNLI in its most basic and humanitarian form. Then names of those who lost their lives will be engraved in steel bands around the base of the memorial sculpture.
Brian Wead, RNLI Service Information Manager, said: "Significant research has been undertaken both at headquarters and at our stations to identify over 750 individuals who have made the ultimate sacrifice, but given the passage of time and the vagaries of record keeping over the years, we sadly still have some unknowns or missing initials."
Maureen La Frenais, RNLI Memorial Manager added: "The project is being managed and part-funded through the RNLI Heritage Trust, which was set up to preserve the historic objects and archives of the Institution for future generations as donations and legacies given to the RNLI for lifesaving can only be used for that purpose. So we are extremely grateful to the lifeboat station volunteers and crews, the wider RNLI family and our supporters who have made this memorial possible. Our Chief Executive, Andrew Freemantle led the fundraising drive when he cycled 1,100 miles from Poole in Dorset to the Italian capital of Rome and raised more than £55,000, which covers over a third of the cost of the sculpture."
The Mearns lifeboatmen who will be honoured on the new memorial are the crew of the Stonehaven lifeboat, St. George, which was launched in 1868 to help of the Grace Darling of Blyth which flew distress signals as she drifted north. She bore away to the north and as she showed no distress signals, the lifeboat then made for Aberdeen Harbour.
The lifeboat was struck by a heavy sea between the north pier and the breakwater and capsized. Six of the crew remained on board when she sunk.
James Leiper (Coxswain) and John Brown (Assistant Coxswain) were clinging to her but the men aboard could not reach
them and they were washed away. James Brown managed to get aboard but Main, Lees and William Scott were never
seen again. With four oars left and the rudder torn, the men were unable to pull the boat into the harbour. Later they were driven onto the rocks north of the pier and managed to scramble ashore. William Scott and James Lees were discovered by the Aberdeen lifeboat but Lees later died. Four men - Lees, Brown, Main and Leiper - were lost.
In Cowie Churchyard at the south west corner of the church is the lifeboat stone in memory of these gallant men.
The other Mearns man to be honoured on the new memorial is James McBay of Johnshaven, a crew member of the village's lifeboat "James Marsh", which overturned on December 21, 1920 when returning to the harbour after carrying out a rescue, with the tragic loss of the life of boatman McBay and two rescued seamen.
