Canvey Life Savers

with the Prout brothers

This was 1959 and the Prout Brothers were presenting the Canvey Life Saving Club with a folding dinghy.

Ron is crouching behind the boat far left. Prout brothers standing in the middle at the back
Ron Reynolds

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  • Life saving club with a folding dinghy (also known as ELP)

    This was a real blessing, to at last have a vessel capable of taking some life savers out to where the dangers for swimmers lay, just beyond the row of saplings.   We were also very fortunate to be given a suitable outboard motor for it. As you can see from our T shirts we were life savers all of us working and training hard to become qualified lifeguards.  The only previous vessel for our use was a double seated canoe, one that I had full use of. On asking the owner Mr Ives if it could be used by the life savers he readily agreed for it to be given to them. It meant one more item could be stored in the wooden hut which we now had, thanks to the council. How do you use a canoe in life saving? We were to find out after many interesting and at times worrying capsizes and duckings.  Not forgetting we were in tidal waters.  We were eventually able to get a third person on board and back to the beach, without the loss of one of the team.  To assist in buoyancy we fitted a car tyre inner tube inside the front area then inflated it.  This canoe was called Skua the name of a sea bird, as you will all know!   The boat from the Prout brothers we named ELP. Can anybody name the people immediately behind the boat we have Ron left, Charles Cary 4th 8thand 9th standing Roland and Francis I did know you all then, please fill in the blanks if possibleRon

    By Ron Reynolds (19/04/2015)
  • Oh dear one I missed! my wife Beatrice, standing immediately to the left of Roland and Francis

    By Ron Reynolds (20/04/2015)

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