Farewell to Scarborough lifeboat stalwart Eric Russell

A popular member of the Scarborough RNLI family, Eric was a member of the lifeboat support group, a shop volunteer and a brass polisher.

He was polishing brass, such as the fire hydrant, on the lifeboat as recently as six months ago.

Eric worked as a BBC cameraman and as a freelance journalist specialising in electronics, and ran an electronics company.

He met his wife Dorothy at a dance in Worcester, when Eric was a trainee cameraman.

When Eric invited Dorothy out on a date, she refused until he agreed to take her for dinner. “My friends and I had a bet on who could be taken out for the best meal,” Dorothy said.

Speaking a few years ago, Dorothy described her husband as a “cockney sparrow” whose job, at one point, involved scaling the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral to film Winston Churchill’s funeral in 1965.

The couple went to a Miss World final, the Last Night of the Proms at the Albert Hall, a Formula 1 race at Brands Hatch and numerous horse races.

They lived in Ebberston, Snainton, Brompton and Cayton before moving to Sandybed Lane 34 years ago.

The Russells, who had two children – Kate and Richard, loved jazz and attended Scarborough’s jazz festival as often as they could.