Mablethorpe crew helps to bid a final farewell to Barry

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution Mablethorpe were privileged to receive the request from the family of the late Barry Bisby, who died in June shortly before his 79th birthday and was a regular visitor to Mablethorpe.

Barry’s ashes were scattered at sea on October 13.

Barry was a member of the ‘Mermaid Ramblers’, a group of three families - the Bisbys from Rotherham, the Peggs from Newark and the Ashworths from Sheffield - who became friends during a Mablethorpe holiday in 1987.

The group was ‘officially’ formed at the Mermaid Inn, in Seaholme Road, in 1991.

The evening before Barry’s ashes were scattered at sea, the Mermaid Ramblers presented the RNLI Mablethorpe crew with a donation of £1,511.

The initial sum of £250 was raised when the landlord and regulars started to cut the ties off gentlemen entering the Inn. Certificates were issued to the gentlemen indicating how badly done to they were, and the ladies retaliated by issuing their own certificates stating that they were the general ‘dogs bodies’.

This was all done in good spirit, and the group decided that the money should go to the Mablethorpe lifeboat station. They also agreed to focus more of their fundraising activity towards RNLI Mablethorpe.

Further fundraising activities included a bed push from Rotherham to Mablethorpe; a six-man catamaran trip from Skegness to Mablethorpe (raising funds for both lifeboat stations); collections wearing fancy dress at several of Mablethorpe’s caravan parks; a couple of boat pushes from Ingoldmells to Mablethorpe; a car push from Market Rasen to Mablethorpe on a day of very mixed weather conditions; an amusement helicopter pull from Ingoldmells to Mablethorpe; and several more bed and car pushes.

Over the last 28 years, the Mermaid Ramblers have raised approximately £60,000. Barry’s daughter Lisa said: ‘It will not be the same without Barry but we will carry on doing this; it is what he would have wanted but he will be sadly missed.’

Mark Chambers, Deputy Launching Authority at RNLI Mablethorpe said: ‘We are extremely grateful to the Bisby family and the Mermaid Ramblers for their very generous donations resulting from the hard work they put into their fundraising activities on our behalf. It was an honour to be able to assist in their last goodbye to Barry. Fundraising efforts such as this demonstrate the commitment to ourselves that the local community and our visiting holidaymakers have.

“The kindness and generosity of our fundraisers goes towards training and equipping our crew to enable us to continue our mission to save lives at sea.’