Christmas is a time for family and, for many, a time for sharing stories of times and generations past. For the Pimm family from Yarmouth, these stories often involve saving lives at sea. Yarmouth RNLI has meant a great deal to the Pimm family since 1971 when father, Stuart Pimm, joined the crew at a time when Yarmouth had an inshore D-class lifeboat, as well as an All Weather Lifeboat. Grandfather Maurice Pimm followed in his son’s footsteps and joined as volunteer crew in 1977 until 1982. Maurice loved being on crew so much, he actually lied about his age to stay on board for longer than he should have done. Stuart was on the Yarmouth crew for 35 years, and in that time earned quite the array of awards including several commendations, a Vellum, a service award and the Queen’s Golden Jubilee medal. During his 35 years, Stuart helped crew an incredible 4 boats in service including a D – class, a 48ft Oakley prototype lifeboat, an Arun and finally the mighty Severn. Over the years, Stuart went from strength to strength working up from volunteer shore crew, all the way to Second Coxswain and Second Mechanic for the current Severn-class Lifeboat, 17-25 Eric and Susan Hiscock ‘Wanderer’. During his time as crew, Stuart and wife Elaine welcomed 2 boys into the family, both of whom were christened on the Arun class Lifeboat (52-08 Joy and John Wade), in 1990 and 1996. But the boys’ time on the RNLI lifeboats didn’t stop there. Having heard the stories from both their father and grandfather, and most certainly being used to the crew pager sounding at all hours of the day, it was when Richard turned 17 in 2007 that he would finally don his own pair of yellow wellies and joined the Yarmouth RNLI volunteer crew. 
It was then in 2014 that Richard became Yarmouth RNLI’s full time mechanic, a career he longed to pursue from such an early age. When appointed this role, Richard was, at the time, 1 of the RNLI’s youngest mechanics at the age of 24. Alex wasn’t far behind, joining the Pimm dynasty at the age of 17 in 2013. Alex is currently a deputy Lifeboat Mechanic for Richard, and is now working his way towards being passed out as a Deputy Coxswain. You’ll find that there aren’t many shouts these days where a Pimm isn’t present. Stuart said:
“I am immensely proud of my sons. Watching them both grow to be the men they are today and continuing what I initially started for the Pimms all those years ago. It was an absolute privilege to volunteer for the RNLI, and it’s been quite the experience watching the growth of the charity, and seeing all the changes that have been made to the kits and the boats. All of which couldn’t be possible without the generosity of the general public. I extend my gratitude to those who have donated to the RNLI back when I was on crew, and those who are donating today. Without you, we wouldn’t be able to help those in need at sea.”
If you thought that with Alex joining the crew, that would be where the link to the RNLI with this family ended. Well, you’d be mistaken, as in April 2023, Richard’s partner of 10 years, Hebe Gregory, joined the RNLI as a volunteer press officer. Hebe said:
“It’s been a real honour to continue this generation of lifeboat crew and volunteers, and support them and the charity within this new role.”
Alex Pimm, the youngest of the Pimm family, has said:
“There’s no feeling quite like bringing someone home safe to their families – especially at Christmas. But as volunteer lifeboat crew we couldn’t launch without kind donations from the public which fund the kit, training and equipment we need to save others and get home safely to our own families.”
The Pimm family isn’t the only family at Yarmouth Lifeboat Station, in fact having generations of volunteers working on and off shore is a regular occurrence! Over the years the station has had families of the name Campbell, Coates-Evans, Cooke, Cotton, Harwood, Lemonius, Lester, Preece, Robinson, Tribe and Wilcock – who all volunteer, or volunteered, their time on and for Yarmouth’s lifeboat to help continue to save lives at sea.
