Llandudno RNLI Shannon Launch and Recovery System named in memory of Roy Barker

A man has left his entire estate to the RNLI.

Fredrick Roy Barker, who was known as Roy, left his entire estate to the RNLI, with the request that the income received from the fund be known as the Roy Barker Memorial Fund.

Mr Fredrick Roy Barker (1909-1992) was the only son of a Lincolnshire farming family, and his love for the sea was nurtured from holidays spent fishing with his great uncle.

Roy studied animal medicine and husbandry at university, followed by a business degree in the USA. He expanded his farming portfolio with farms in Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. Roy went on to become the Managing Director and Chairman of Banbury Stockyard in Oxfordshire, having built the company up to become the largest livestock trading centre in Europe.

Roy sold the company and his farming interests in the early 1970s. He moved to Jersey in 1974, where he was able to fully enjoy his love for sailing, particularly in the Channel Islands, Solent and Mediterranean. The yard where Roy’s boat was serviced also oversaw the annual maintenance of St Helier’s lifeboat and his lifelong interest in the RNLI and technological advancements continued to grow.

Roy admired the dedication, skill and bravery of the volunteer crews and, indeed, their families who support them.

Over the last thirty years income from The Roy Barker Memorial Fund has helped fund three Trent class lifeboats – stationed at Alderney in the Channel Islands, Wick in Scotland and Howth in the Republic of Ireland together with a Tamar class lifeboat and boathouse at the Mumbles in Wales.

Captain Marcus Elliot Lifeboat Operations Manager expressed his thanks by saying: ‘Llandudno is one of the stations to benefit from the generosity of the Roy Barker fund. It has enabled the volunteer crew at our station to operate the new Shannon class lifeboat. This is only possible because of the intensive training undertaken by our dedicated team of tractor drivers to operate this complex machine.’

Image: RNLI/Jonathan Coe