The sons of two serving RNLI lifeboat members have followed in their father's footsteps by joining the crew.

Oliver Titcombe and Grant Welch also became the youngest members of the Margate team by doing so.

The pair signed up on their seventeenth birthday, the youngest age at which they can enrol.

Volunteer lifeboat press officer Peter Barker said: "As well as their own studies for future life Oliver and Grant are now learning new skills and experiencing the satisfaction of engaging in volunteer work in the local community."

They are now starting an intensive training programme to eventually become full seagoing members of both the inshore and all-weather lifeboat crew.

Oliver is in the sixth form at Ursuline College and Grant is studying at East Kent College.