A former coxswain of Ramsgate lifeboat and an active RNLI volunteer for 53 years has been presented with an MBE.

Ron Cannon, who retired as coxswain in 2001, was handed the award for services to the charity.

He was a crew member on Ramsgate lifeboat at one of the busiest stations in Britain for 37 years, and served as coxswain for 25 of those.

During his time at the helm of Ramsgate lifeboat he was awarded two silver Gallantry medals, the RNLI’s second highest honour.

Following family tradition, Mr Cannon joined Ramsgate lifeboat crew in 1964 and was appointed the station’s coxswain/mechanic in 1976, at the time the RNLI’s youngest coxswain.

This was shortly before the arrival at the station of the RNLI’s Waveney class lifeboat Ralph and Joy Swann, a new and advanced lifeboat design based upon a vessel proven by the US Coastguard.

He was twice awarded the RNLI’s silver medal for “truly outstanding seamanship and tremendous courage”.

The first was during the evening on Boxing Day 1985 when he and his volunteer lifeboat crew members saved a French trawler and its seven-man crew when the trawler had run aground in Ramsgate’s Pegwell Bay.

The second was in November 1999, when he led his crew to rescue the three people aboard a yacht aground on the Goodwin Sands in difficult and dangerous conditions.

For each of these rescues he was also presented with The Maud Smith Award for that year’s bravest act of lifesaving by a lifeboat crew member.

Before retiring Mr Cannon carried out hundreds of rescues.

He was succeeded by his eldest son Ian but has maintained association with Ramsgate lifeboat station, first as a deputy launching authority and subsequently as lifeboat operations manager until he reached the RNLI’s required retirement age.

His active support for the RNLI and the station continues, however, as president of the station’s management committee.