East Yorkshire RNLI lifeboat volunteer retires after 54 years

Captain David Freeman has retired after more than 50 years volunteering with the RNLI in East Yorkshire, with the charity saying he joined the Flamborough station in 1972. Over his decades of service, Freeman worked in roles including crew member, coxswain and launch tractor driver, later managing lifeboat operations. The retirement follows a career marked by major rescues, including saving more than 100 people in 1983 when local fishermen aboard cobles were caught in a winter storm near Flamborough Head. Freeman said the weather was extremely bad with a strong south-easterly gale, and the crew worked to get survivors to Scarborough before returning for others.