Profile Andrew Freemantle

Profile Andrew Freemantle
Director of the RNLI
Due to be published in The Sunday Times
October 2008

During the course of today, lifeboats are likely have rescued around 20 people from coastal waters around the UK and Ireland. Over a year their unpaid volunteer crews save thousands of lives.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution’s chief executive Andrew Freemantle, a former career soldier says: “There is a nobility about these people who go out in these little boats in appalling conditions to rescue other people. One is very fortunate to be working in an organisation held in such high esteem. It represents the best of British – to give and not count the cost.”

Last year RNLI Lifeboats rescued 7,834 people, Another 10,000 were helped by the RNLI’s recently established beach life guard operation

It’s creation and the opening of the RNLI training college are two key achievements of Freemantle’s 10 years at the helm.

Before coming to the RNLI he saw combat in Vietnam with the Australian SAS after a career in the British Army, then ran the Scottish Ambulance Service. He says: “There are common skills, challenges and problems in running big organisations. There are lots of people in the Army and Scottish ambulance service - though not enough - and in the RNLI. “

The charity, founded in 1824, operates its lifeboat services without a penny from the British Government. Most of its annual £124 million budget comes from legacies and fundraising - though it does get a little financial aid from the Irish Government, a relationship that pre-dates independence.

Projects like the first memorial to commemorate lifeboat crew lost at work - to be unveiled late in 2009 – must be funded from other sources. Last summer Freemantle did his bit. The 64-year-old - not normally a cyclist - undertook a 1,100 mile sponsored bike ride from the RNLI HQ in Poole to Rome to raise £57,000 towards the sculpture.

The RNLI pays Freemantle just over £133,000 a year to oversee its 1,300 staff, 26.000 fundraising volunteers and about 7.000 men and volunteers who are in the front line at 235 lifeboat stations.

Freemantle’s office overlooks the RNLI’s training college, opened five years ago by the Queen. All lifeboat crew attend courses here, reflecting the RNLI’s saying: “Train one, save many.”

Though he can also see Poole harbour from his desk, Freemantle’s forays onto the water are infrequent because his week involves long hours in meetings. He does rub shoulders with visiting crews in the college cafeteria.

This week he addressed the Fire Services College – they collaborate on flood rescue operations – and prepared for an imminent visit to China.

The Chinese Rescue and Salvage Bureau have bought 20 lifeboats from the RNLI. “The Chinese sent people around the world and hit upon the RNLI to work with. We are regarded as providing a gold standard world-wide for sea rescue services.”