Youngest lifesaver may get classroom call-out

A schoolboy has become Scotland’s youngest lifeboatman.

Kieran Fairbairn has received his call-out pager a month after turning 17 – the youngest anyone can join a crew.

Kieran, son of Dunbar Lifeboat coxswain Gary Fairbairn, is now on call to respond to any lifesaving emergencies, even if it means racing from the classroom.

He has begun his training and will serve on Dunbar station’s two lifeboats, the all-weather (ALB) and the D-class inshore (ILB).

He has big seaboots to fill -- both his father and his great-great-great grandfather were awarded medals for bravery after daring rescues at sea.

Kieran said yesterday: “Lifeboats have been in my family since forever. I’ve grown up around it. I’ve been a ‘herald’ for Dunbar’s Lifeboat Day celebrations and I used to watch my dad going off on rescues from our window. Now it feels fantastic to have the pager and be part of the crew myself and it’s great to be able to give something back to the community I live in.”

Kieran is in his final year at Dunbar Grammar School studying for Higher and National 5 qualifications, but he might have to put his schoolwork on hold should the pager go off while he’s in class. He said: “My teachers have given me special dispensation to be out of class. I might have to wait a while before I get my first shout but I hope, with the training I have to do, when the time comes I’ll be ready.”

Although lifeboats have been in the Fairbairn blood, Gary, 48, says it wasn’t a given that his son would follow in his footsteps.

The full-time coxswain and RNLI volunteer for 23 years said: “It came as a shock to me, to be honest, when he asked to join. I had asked him if he was interested in the past but he never showed much enthusiasm. I wasn’t going to push him. It always had to be up to him.

“We are very grateful to have the understanding and cooperation of his teachers.”

Gary hopes Kieran’s involvement might inspire others from his generation to join up.

He said: “We are always looking for volunteers, particularly for our D-class inshore lifeboat.

“Kieran’s generation will be the future of this station. That’s the way it’s always been, the older hands passing on their know-how to the next generation.”