A PAIR of lifelong friends both celebrated 50 years’ service to the RNLI – on the same day.

Mechanic Jimmy Quinn and coxswain Paul Frost, both 64, joined the Rhyl crew in 1968, launching on their first call-out at just 14 years’ old.

Paul said: “Jim and I are proud to have served the lifeboat community in an operational role for 50 years. There will be few in the RNLI’s ranks today who could match that achievement.”

The pals – who celebrated their milestone together at Rhyl lifeboat station on Monday, September 17 – met after Jimmy moved to Rhyl from near Liverpool with his family, joining the Life boys team before moving to the 1st Rhyl Boys’ Brigade at 11 years' old.

Following a mutual friend to a Sunday training session at 14, the two became hooked and were so keen to join the crew that they helped out whenever they could – at the shop and in the station – while they waited to reach the minimum joining age of 17. 

However, their first call to action occurred in their first year, taking to the relatively new inshore lifeboat – in lieu of any crew members on hand – to rescue two salmon fishermen who had capsized their salmon punt just off the boathouse in the surf.

As they were both under-age, this service could not be recognised and both officially became part of the crew three years later.

Over 50 years, Jimmy has become well known at RNLI stations throughout the UK, providing cover for mechanics at locations from Shetland to Dover and from Newquay to Aldeburgh on the east coast of England, as well as in Northern Ireland.

Jimmy is qualified to be the mechanic on any class of lifeboat on station, apart from the new Shannon-class lifeboats. Paul has progressed through the volunteer ranks from crew member to helmsman in charge of the inshore lifeboat, through to mechanic and up to coxswain of the all-weather lifeboat. 

Paul is qualified in every role on the all-weather lifeboat and was appointed an MBE for his services to the RNLI by the Queen in 2011. 

Both Jimmy and Paul retired from the inshore lifeboat on reaching the statutory finishing age of 45, but continued on the all-weather lifeboat.