This Is Your Life: Alfred Pavey

Alfred PAVEY (1926-)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Alfred Pavey, lifeboat coxswain, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the Weymouth lifeboat station, having been led to believe that his second-in-command was to be the subject.

Alf, who was born the son of a fisherman in Weymouth, served with the Royal Army Service Corps, Water Transport Division, during the Second World War. After the war he took over the running of a pleasure boat business started by his father.

Following in the tradition of his father and grandfather, Alf joined the Weymouth lifeboat crew and was made second coxon in 1958 and coxswain in 1962 - and in a 30 year career took part in more than 400 emergencies and helped save almost 300 lives.

"Oh no! How could you let them do it to me? Cor blimey, Eamonn!"

programme details...

Edition No: 457
Subject No: 454
Broadcast date: Wed 16 Feb 1977
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Wed 9 Feb 1977
Venue: Southern Television, Southampton
Series: 17
Edition: 17
Code name: Switch

on the guest list...

members of Weymouth lifeboat crew
Eric - brother
Vic Pitman - cousin
Chantal d'Orthez
Joan - wife
Linda - daughter
Terry - son
Walter Meyer
Derek Crisp
Pat - sister
Bill - brother
Harry - brother
Arthur - brother
Dan Taylor
Joe Basso
Arthur Pike
Norman Berry
Fred Palmer
Lionel Hellier
Dane - grandson
Paul - grandson
Frank - son-in-law
Peter Engley
Doreen Engley
Shannon Engley
Rosalind Engley
Peter Engley Jr

production team...

Researchers: Marilyn Gaunt, Tony Lee
Writers: Tom Brennand, Roy Bottomley
Directors: Royston Mayoh, Terry Yarwood
Executive Producer: Jack Andrews
Producer: Jack Crawshaw

related page...

Life Savers

heroes of the emergency services

Screenshots of Alfred Pavey This Is Your Life

Presenter Eamonn Andrews and producer Jack Crawshaw recall this edition of This Is Your Life in their book, Surprise Of Your Life...

I will never forget the shout that echoed around the quayside at Weymouth in Dorset when I told Alf Pavey "This Is Your Life". It was a roar of disbelief that might have been heard in John O'Groats. An uncontrollable outburst that, above all, demonstrated this man's selflessness.

Alf Pavey had thought all along that he had been helping us spring the surprise on his pal Victor Pitman.

This Is Your Life Alf Pavey was a classic case of "The Switcheroo". Early this year, we spotted a paragraph in a newspaper announcing that Vic Pitman had been awarded the RNLI's Silver Medal for his heroic part when the Weymouth boat saved seven people from a sinking yacht including Chantel D'Orthez, the daughter of Moira Lister.

Researchers Marilyn Gaunt and Tony Lee talked immediately to a contact of ours at the RNLI who told us that the best person to talk to about Vic Pitman would be his pal and chief coxswain. Vic had led the award winning rescue because Alf, the regular coxswain of the lifeboat, had been away from Weymouth at the time taking, what for him was, a rare holiday.

We discovered that Vic and Alf were cousins. Both had risked their lives doing battle with the crashing seas off the notorious Portland Bill coastline. Both were true heroes, but it was Alf who had repeatedly shouldered the heaviest burden of all. The burden of responsibility that the man in command carries for his crew.

Vic Pitman was the first to agree that the number one hero of the Weymouth lifeboat was coxswain Alf Pavey, a 51-year-old grandfather, who first went to sea as a teenager. And Vic agreed that a sure way to catch Alf off-guard was to tell him that we wanted him to help us set up a This Is Your Life on the new medal winner in his crew – Vic himself.

Marilyn and Tony contacted Alf through the RNLI and arranged to meet him to discuss "a very confidential matter". When they asked him what he thought about our paying tribute to Vic he was absolutely delighted.

"Whatever you want just ask for", he told them after immediately agreeing to help surprise Vic by getting him to take part with the rest of the crew in a televised documentary on the dangers and demands of the lifeboat service.

What Alf didn't know, of course, was that while he was deep in conversation with Marilyn, Tony Lee was with Vic working out the details of the plan to turn the tables. It was the cover we needed to carry out the difficult task of researching Alf's story right under his nose in the small Dorset resort where he was born and bred.

It was one of those stories where the more you find out the more you want to share it with others. But as always the number of "others" had to be kept to a minimum.

A few days before the show, Alf was told to tell Vic and the crew that they would be needed for a filming session on their unsinkable lifeboat the "Tony Vandervell" as part of the documentary. Vic and the crew were told the real reason was for us to shoot our own film of Alf in action at the helm.

On the eve of the programme, Alf agreed to take Vic out so that we could stage a secret meeting with his friends and relatives. Again, what he didn't know was that the secret meeting was not with Vic's friends, but with his.

Alf was told that, having done his recorded message in the boat, his involvement on Vic's show would be minimal.

On the day, all Alf had to do was to lead Vic and the rest of the crew off the moored lifeboat and into the boathouse where I would be waiting to surprise his second in command. As I waited in the boathouse, dressed in RNLI anorak and hat, I couldn't help notice the rolls of honour on the walls recording some of the hundreds of acts of bravery carried out by the man I was hoping to surprise and the crew I was in cahoots with.

I was comforted by the knowledge that Alf Pavey was a man with a fine sense of fun. Indeed it would have taken a very stoic character indeed not to have appreciated the humour in the situation as I greeted Alf Pavey, Victor Pitman and the crew of the Weymouth lifeboat when they stepped ashore.

The brave men of the sea looked particularly boyish as I produced the book with the name carefully concealed by a paper wrapping. Alf gave me a knowing grin when I thanked him for his help and asked him if he knew the name on the book. Of course he did. Vic gave me a knowing look, too, when I asked Alf to rip the wrapping off and read that name. Vic was right.

Alf's roar when he saw his own name was matched only by the outburst from the crew. Laughter and some sea shouts I hope either the microphones failed to catch or the listeners understand.

Alf yanked off his white skipper's hat and hurled it to the ground as Vic and the boys set upon him. Somebody was going to end up in the drink if I didn't get them moving.

The switcheroo had worked and as researcher Tony Lee had pointedly told Alf when thanking him for his pre-programme help, we really couldn't have done the programme without him.

Scriptwriter Roy Bottomley recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, This Is Your Life: The Story of Television's Famous Big Red Book...

Alf Pavey was very helpful getting together a Life on his cousin and deputy cox Vic Pitman, who had just been awarded a silver medal for saving the lives of seven people from a sinking yacht off the coast of Weymouth.

Alf, the regular cox, had been on holiday. But he had a record of more than four hundred turn-outs, saving three hundred lives. Everyone agreed he deserved our tribute, and Vic was the first to co-operate.

But we carried on seeking Alf's co-operation on a Life on his cousin. Eamonn Andrews was waiting in the boat-house when the crew came in.

When Alf realised our double bluff he let out a roar that could have been heard the length of the coast, and flung his white cox's cap to the floor.

A signed, framed picture of the Weymouth boat hangs on the wall of the Life office, a memento of that February day in 1977.

Series 17 subjects