Lifeboatman’s lifetime of service at sea
A FORMER Fleet Air Arm mechanic has retired from Campbeltown lifeboat after two decades before the mast.
Trevor Scott-Dodd, 55, the boat’s mechanic, formally retires on Sunday, after 20 years with the crew, 16 of them as one of two full timers.
Mr Scott-Dodd began his service life straight from school, on land, as an apprentice with the army’s Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. It all changed after a brother persuaded him a life at sea was better.
‘My younger brother was in the Royal Navy,’ said Mr ScottDodd, ‘One day as we were walking down Lothian Road in Edinburgh he told me to go and enlist at the navy recruitment centre.’
On joining the navy Mr Scott-Dodd retrained as an aeronautical engineer to service helicopters. In a 10-year career he spent time at Culdrose, Yeovilton, HMS Daedalus, Lee-on-Solent and RNAS Prestwick where he met his wife Janet.
He said: ‘I left the navy halfway through a seven-month tour of Bosnia in 1994. With my two engineering apprenticeships when I got to the RNLI they just left me alone and I have trained up six other mechanics through the years.’
Service life suited as Mr Scott-Dodd’s family had moved around considerably with his management consultant father. His mother, aged 84, has just made her 35th move to re-settle in Kintyre.
He said: ‘Back in the early ’80s we nearly bought while I was in Somerset but my mum had always wanted a guest house so we bought Rosemount in Campbeltown.’
Mr Scott-Dodd will have a pager and continue as a volunteer member of the crew and thinks he might find some other job in the future.