A carpenter - who admits that a two-hour sailing course after his GCSEs was among his limited maritime experience when he joined the lifeboat - is retiring from operational duties after 50 years.

Brian Hadler says he only signed-up to help the RNLI after a chance conversation with two crew members five decades ago.

He had been trawling and oyster dredging with a friend when he came across two volunteers – Mike Judge and Mick Gambrill – who were washing down the launching tractor.

Brian explains: “They asked if I had ever thought of joining the lifeboat crew.

“This was something that I had never thought of. I had some knowledge of boat handling and the sea off Whitstable and my only other maritime experience was a couple of hours sailing course at Tankerton Bay Sailing Club post my GCSEs.

“I was otherwise completely green”.

That walk through the harbour would signal the start of various volunteer roles for Brian who started with the organisation in 1975 as a shore helper before learning to drive the ‘Case’ launching tractor.

Three years after that he was promoted to sea-going crew before later taking up the position of helmsman - with the tradesman working alongside fishermen, harbour staff or others connected to the sea.

And juggling his carpentry work with his emergency service role has meant some long hours over the years for the passionate local historian.

He said: “I was hanging some doors one afternoon when the call came to a casualty on a yacht suffering from hypothermia.

“He had been over the side to sort out a propeller problem but became hypothermic. He managed to get back onboard his craft and call for help before passing out.

“We came alongside his vessel and transferred him to the lifeboat and subsequently ashore at Harty Ferry where the RAF Sea King helicopter arrived to take him to hospital.

“The helicopter landed in the car park but the downdraft blasted away the rubbish bins, quite a spectacular sight witnessed only by us and the sheep.

“I had to return to the house where I had been working and finish hanging the door to a baby’s bedroom at 8pm that evening.”

Brian was among the first of Whitstable’s crew to attend helm training courses at Cowes where a capsize activity in winter deliberately sent the crew into freezing waters before they had to swim back, right the craft and reboard.

“This was in the winter of 1986, the coldest since 1963. I have never been so cold” he recalled.

He also went on ‘hard core’ first aid courses with the Royal Navy’s Air Medical School - skills which came in handy when the lifeboat rescued a catamaran taking in water in torrential rain near Herne Bay where the skipper was suffering from hypothermia.

Brian, who is from Whitstable, stepped down from the station’s sea-going crew in 2000, taking over as tractor driver and ‘Deputy Launching Authority’ - a role which he has held up until his retirement from the operational side of the station.

But alongside many years as crew the RNLI says Brian has thrown his support behind many a fundraising event including carnivals, street collections, quizzes, darts matches and even a near 12-hour row around the Isle of Sheppey.

Whitstable Lifeboat Launch Authority Mike Judge added: “As Brian completes his operational service, it should be noted that very few people in the modern age of the RNLI are likely to be able to encompass so many different elements of volunteering for the RNLI.

“Much of this unnoticed by many, as is the role Brian is about to vacate, having done it for the last 12 years, as a Launching Authority, providing cover to the Operational Team whenever required.

“A quiet, steady and humorous man who has gone about his life-boating and volunteering career in a steadfast manner, throughout all the changes that have been undertaken over his 50 years on the station. Old school, and I commend and thank him very much for it.”