The ‘courage and determination’ shown by two local men has been praised by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in announcing this week that their inscribed thanks on vellum are to be awarded to Dr Desmond Valentine and Mr John Pavitt.

The awards recognise the bravery shown by the two men when an injured seaman was taken off the ship Manchester Merit a few miles off the North Devon coast last January. At the time, Appledore branch secretary Mr Ivor Wickersham described it as ‘a hazardous operation carried out extremely well’.