Lifesaving Is In Their Blood; Fifth-Generation Lifeboat Man To Be Honoured By Queen

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), July 12, 2008

Byline: By SONIA SHARMA

QUEEN Victoria was on the throne when the Oliver family first started saving souls from the sea.

Now five generations on and 156 years later, the Queen is to honour the heroism of the latest custodian on the Cullercoats RNLI lifeboat.

Robert Oliver, a 43-year-old a senior helmsman, has been invited to Buckingham Palace for a garden party as a way of thanking him.

Mr Oliver joined the Royal National Lifeboat Institution 26 years ago and has been involved in nearly 800 search and rescue incidents.

But his family have been committed to the cause since at least 1852. Mr Oliver says more generations were possibly involved but his records only go back to the mid-19th Century.

His great-great-grandfather Andrew Taylor was a coxswain with the Cullercoats lifeboat. Andrew's son, Joseph, followed. Then came Joseph's son, James Taylor.

Next in line was Mr Oliver's dad, Raymond Oliver, married to James's daughter Lillian.

Mr Oliver said: "The whole family was involved in fishing and lifeboats were a part of life. Helping people at sea was part and parcel of fishing.

"My dad was also a fisherman and I grew up learning about boats. He was involved with the lifeboat and I joined a week after my 17th birthday. It's in the blood."

As well crewing the lifeboat, he works as a mechanic, helping to maintain equipment at the Cullercoats station. He is also a part-time fisherman and works part-time for Newcastle University's marine biology department.

He is on call 24 hours a day and can be paged at any time. He said: "My day is pretty much packed. I'm either working for the university, for the lifeboat, or fishing. There may be times when my wife, Sandra, wants to go shopping or do other things but I can't join her as I have to be at the station.

"But she's very understanding and is involved with the charity herself.

"I'm always able to find time for the lifeboat, just like the other volunteers."

Mr Oliver has helped in numerous rescues over the years. He was part of the crew called to the beach off Whitley Bay in August, 2006, when four teenagers were saved from drowning.

The girls, all aged 14, were pulled into deep water by a riptide. Three members of the public jumped in to save them and later received awards from the Royal Humane Socie ty.

The Cullercoats lifeboat, with Robert at the helm, was there to take the youngsters to safety.

Now Mr Oliver and his wife Sandra, 43, who is chair of the Cullercoats and Whitley Bay Ladies' Lifeboat Guild, which helps to raise money for the RNLI, are looking forward to meeting the Queen on Tuesday.

The Oliver family's contribution to the charity may not end here. Their nine-year-old daughter, Hannah, may soon join.

Mr Oliver said: "She knows as much about boats as most of the lads at the station."

BACK IN 1852...

QUEEN Victoria was on the throne.

At the start of the year, John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, was Prime Minister. But he resigned in February and the Earl of Derby formed a minority Conservative government. He too resigned in December following the defeat of his Budget and the Earl of Aberdeen became PM, leading a Whig-Peelite coalition.

The Great Ormond Street Hospital, in London, admitted its first patients and the new Palace of Westminster, designed by Charles Barry and August Pugin, opened.

King's Cross railway station, the largest in Europe at the time, was completed.

Charles Dickens' novel Bleak House was serialised. In it he highlighted the flaws of the British judiciary system.

Anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe, was published. It had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the United States.

CAPTION(S):

FAMILY AFFAIR: Robert Oliver's father Raymond Oliver; grandad James Taylor; great-grandad Joseph Taylor and great-great-grandad Andrew Taylor; ALWAYS READY: Robert Oliver on board the lifeboat; IN CHARGE: Robert Oliver as helmsman on the Cullercoats lifeboat