A historic document recognising a Kirkcudbright farmer’s heroic efforts nearly 160 years ago has been returned to the town.
Kirkcudbright RNLI recently received a parcel containing a vellum presented to Andrew Lusk in 1865 after he and five of his servants attempted to rescue the crew of the schooner Havelock of Preston.
The document was found as part of a job lot which went up for auction in Lincoln, with the new owner feeling it should be returned to Kirkcudbright.
Kirkcudbright RNLI lifeboat operations manager, John Collins, said: “We were surprised to receive a phone call from an individual who had found the vellum within a job lot he bought at an auction.
“He believed the vellum should be with Kirkcudbright RNLI and we were delighted that the individual sent it across to us. It is now part of our station’s archives which we proudly display during the RNLI’s 200th anniversary.”
The vellum, and a silver medal, was presented to Mr Lusk after the Havelock of Preston was wrecked on November 30, 1864.
Andrew and five of his servants attempted to rescue the crew but one of the servants, Peter McGinn, drowned and all of the crew
perished. Andrew had sent a servant to alert the lifeboat, but unfortunately all lives were lost before the boat arrived.
In 2012, Peter McGinn’s name was added to the national memorial located at RNLI headquarters in Poole, where future generations of lifesavers train. The sculpture depicts a person in a boat saving another from the water, symbolising the history and future of the RNLI.