Historic document recognising Kirkcudbright farmer’s heroic efforts returned to RNLI lifeboat crew

A historic document recognising a 19th century Kirkcudbright farmer’s heroic efforts has been returned to the town – nearly 160 years after the disaster.

Kirkcudbright RNLI recently received a parcel containing a vellum presented to Andrew Lusk in 1865 after he and five of his servants attempted to rescue the crew of the schooner Havelock the year before.

The document was found as part of a job lot which went up for auction in Lincoln. The new owner felt it should be returned to Kirkcudbright and sent the velum to the local RNLI.

‘We were surprised to receive a phone call from an individual who had found the vellum within a job lot he bought at an auction,’ said John Collins, Lifeboat Operations Manager at Kirkcudbright RNLI.

‘He believed the vellum should be with Kirkcudbright RNLI and we were delighted that the individual sent it across to us. It is now part of our station’s archives which we proudly display during the RNLI’s 200^th anniversary.’

Havelock of Preston was wrecked on 30 November 1864. One of the servants who helped Andrew try to save the crew, Peter McGinn, drowned in the attempt.

Andrew had sent a servant to alert the lifeboat, but unfortunately all lives were lost before the boat arrived.

In 2012, Peter McGinn’s name was added to the national memorial located at RNLI Headquarters in Poole, Dorset, where future generations of lifesavers train.

The sculpture depicts a person in a boat saving another from the water, symbolising the history and future of the RNLI.

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