Arriving at the station he found himself the centre of attention as he was presented with an RNLI long service award.
Ken, who now lives in East Quantoxhead, was formerly coxswain of Shoreham lifeboat and is the holder of three RNLI vellum bravery awards, one of them awarded for his part in rescuing the 26 crew of the Athina B, a cargo vessel which ran aground on Brighton beach in 1980.
Ken was accompanied on his visit by his son, Peter, now Shoreham lifeboat’s deputy coxswain and a training assessor for the RNLI in the south-east division.
The retrospectively-awarded 20-year service medal was presented by Minehead lifeboat’s operations manager Dr John Higgie, watched by the station’s visits officer, Eric Atkins, a former shore crew member at Shoreham.
Eric said: “We wanted to make something of an occasion of it for Ken in view of his outstanding record with the RNLI – but he had no idea what was happening until the medal was produced and handed to him.”
n RNLI officials have decided to shut the station’s shop at the close of trading this Sunday in preparation for a major, £1 million refurbishment of the building in the New Year.
Manager Alma Williams said: “We were hoping to carry on opening for a few more weeks but the logistics of the building project have forced us to rethink our plans. We look forward to opening a much-improved shop sometime late next year.”