Rye stalwart who devoted life to RNLI dies

Priscilla Ryan, from Rye, died aged 93 last Wednesday (July 8) with her family around her bedside.

In 2014, she received special recognition from the RNLI at an informal ceremony at Rye Town Hall.

For more than 60 years’ service in fundraising for the charity, Priscilla was given a bar to the gold badge she had received 10 years previously.

At the time, Katherine Vasey, South East area manager of the charity, said: “This is our most prestigious volunteering award which supports the work of the lifeboat crews.”

Priscilla was just 19 when she started collecting donations from passengers at London’s Victoria Coach station and at the Ideal Home Exhibition.

Later, she extended her collections door-to-door.

When Priscilla and her husband John, the cartoonist and animator best-known for his character Captain Pugwash, came to live in Rye in 1987 her work continued.

Her husband donated the occasional Pugwash sketch to raise funds too.

For many years Priscilla was the president of the RNLI’s Rye, Winchelsea and District branch and retained the position when it merged with Rye Harbour Lifeboat Station branch.

KT Bruce, press officer at the station, said: “She never shied away from the many challenges and changes that have faced the RNLI over the years and supported the local lifeboat station right up to the end.

“She could often be found in the souvenir shop in the harbour, chatting to locals and drumming up support.”

When KT began the pebble memorial project in 2019 Priscilla gave her a donation to get started with paints and brushes and painted her own pebble.

KT added: “She supported every fundraising occasion and enjoyed coming down to the station to meet the crew.”

Priscilla’s fundraising also helped the purchase of a new state-of-the-art lifeboat for Dungeness station.

Paul Bolton, lifeboat operations manager at RNLI Rye Harbour, said: “Priscilla was such an amazing fundraiser for our station and we are so grateful for all her support over the years. We send our warmest wishes from all the crew at the station to her family at this sad time.”

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