North Berwick RNLI hero is honoured by the Queen for decades of service
A North Berwick lifeboat volunteer has been awarded the British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours after volunteering to save lives at sea for more than 50 years.
Stewart Auld’s tireless efforts on behalf of the RNLI earned the BEM for meritorious service and will add it to a variety of others he has earned over his extensive career.
He first joined the RNLI following a request for volunteers to crew their new lifeboat the Blue Peter III. After completing his training, the vessel was put on service during the summer months only until the mid-1980s.
Stewart retired from operational crew service in 1992. However, this was far from the end of his volunteering career.
He continued to volunteer as a Deputy Launching Authority and in 1999, he became the Lifeboat Operations Manager. A position he held as recently as 2015, which he retired from after reaching the maximum age of retirement for operational positions in the RNLI. However, after that he took over as chairman of the Lifeboat Group Management Committee.
During his extensive 54-year volunteering career, Auld received the Queens Golden Jubilee Medal, The Queens Diamond Jubilee Medal, the RNLI Silver Service Badge, his Long Service Medal and will now be adding the British Empire medal to that extensive list.
When asked about the announcement, Stephen said:
“I’m delighted and humbled, it’s a voluntary job that I always wanted to do. My family has a long sea history. It’s great for North Berwick, the community, our lifeboat station and the RNLI.”
