Community pays respects to former Sunderland Lifeboat Station boss who served city's coast for years

Colleagues past and present came together to pay their repsects to Captain Peter Mitchell, the ex-Lifeboat Operations Manager for the city’s RNLI.

Peter was 81 when he died on Saturday, June 29, following a short illness. A service was held at Sunderland Crematorium on Monday, July 8.

Peter’s responsibilities included authorising the lifeboat for launch, and overall management of the station.

In a tribute posted on its Facebook page, Sunderland RNLI said: “During his six-year reign as Operations Manager between 2004 and 2010, the charity’s two inshore lifeboats launched on 506 occasions, saving nine lives and rescuing 490 people.”

“He also oversaw the arrival of two new state of the art inshore lifeboats, the relocation of the lifeboat station into a common base within North Dock Marina, and the introduction of RNLI beach lifeguards onto Sunderland’s beaches.”