THE newest recruits to Poole Lifeboat family had their first taste of life onboard when they popped into the station.

In the past three months the station has greeted three new arrivals, Fay Mallen, Evalyn Smith and Bethan Riley.

Their proud fathers, Glen Mallen, Pete Smith and Dave Riley, all lifeboat volunteers, showed off their delightful daughters at the RNLI SOS fundraising coffee morning.

Poole lifeboat crew is very much a family affair with sons signing up to follow in the yellow welly tradition of their dads.

Antony Skerman and Lewis Singleton both followed their fathers into the lifesaving crew as did volunteer coxswain Jonathan Clark, whose dad was second coxswain.

As a child Jonathan remembers being left at the lifeboat station, now the old lifeboat museum on Poole Quay, while his dad went out on a shout. And his children have grown up alongside the lifeboat.

His daughter Lily Clark, 11, said: “I am very proud of my dad being on the crew because he helps people and I like the lifeboat. Sometimes it can be hard when he is on duty and we cannot go to places like the cinema or do things together, but that’s how it is.

“Dad’s pager once went off when we were looking at my new school. We were sat in the hall with lots and lots of people and it bleeped really loudly and he had to go. Sometimes he goes in the night, me and my brother never even notice.”

She added: “The babies at the station were very cute, maybe we will have a daughter following in the family tradition very soon.”