UPDATE Jan 2022: We are so touched by everyone's kind donations. We have now surpassed £30,000! We have increased our target to £35,000 as we continue to raise funds in memory of Watty. 

UPDATE: Thank you so much to those that have supported us already, now that we are starting to be able to get out and about we have some events in the pipeline and have increased our target to £15,000.

On 1^st October my husband Richard Watson (Watty) was killed in a road traffic accident.  The comments in the letters, texts, emails,
messages and cards that I received over the following weeks all told tales of a man that was loved by many and that who had in one way or another enriched people’s lives by helping or supporting them or just by being a friend.  The comments often contained the following remarks: larger than life, lit the room up with his presence, always had time for me, would go out of his way to help, had a loud laugh, a wicked sense of humour and was great at fabulous off the cuff comments.

Watty was well known in the Skegness community – from an early age he played cricket and hockey for Skegness and eventually took on the role of Secretary for Skegness Cricket Club for a number of years.  Golf eventually took over from other sports and he joined Seacroft Golf Club where he would always be found in the bar afterwards discussing the game in great detail with his regular playing partners.

Watty’s main passion was Skegness Lifeboat.  After some time as a shore helper he became a crew member in 1987 and after 32 years of service he finally retired in 2019.  His lifeboat service record shows he started as a shore helper in 1986, became a crew member on the inshore lifeboat in 1987 and was Senior Helmsman of this boat when he finally reached the age limit for the inshore in 2008. 

Watty became a crew member for the All Weather Lifeboat in 1991 and served as navigator, deputy 2^nd Coxswain, 2^nd Coxswain and eventually held the role of Coxswain from 2017 - 2019.  He also spent time volunteering at Tower Pier on the Thames from 2002-2003 whilst continuing to volunteer at Skegness.  His RNLI service record shows that he “rescued 246 lives from shipwreck”.  Watty was a very humble man with regard to his long service with the RNLI despite his outgoing jovial persona in normal life.

The Skegness Lifeboat Crew spend hours training to maintain the skills needed to be on call 24/7 365 days of the year.  Watty spent several years as the Station Training Officer and as a lasting tribute to him, his family and friends would like to raise monies for Skegness Lifeboat Station in his memory. As a target we would like to raise up to £50,000 over the next 2-3 years, we are working with the RNLI to identify something that the funds can go towards to have a lasting memory of Watty.  

We hope, eventually, to be able to organise fundraising events when we are able to return to some sort of normal life post covid but in the interim we have set ourselves a starting target of £10,000 - Please help us by donating to this cause. All monies donated at the funeral have already been put towards this cause. Thank you