A STONEMASON, a teacher and a postman were among those honoured for their work in keeping Weymouth’s coastline safe.

Aside from their day jobs, the volunteers of the Wyke Coastguard Rescue Team are one of the busiest coastguard teams in the country regularly responding to emergency ‘shouts’ along the coastline.

Their work is very varied and the volunteers are highly trained.

Just some of the work they do includes cliff rescues, searches for missing people, patrolling the coastline, educating the public about safety and manning the helicopter landing site at Dorset County Hospital.

In a special ceremony, they were presented with Diamond Jubilee medals for five years of service by Lord Lieutenant of Dorset Valerie Pitt-Rivers.

Awards were also given to other long-serving staff members of the coastguard agency.

Mrs Pitt-Rivers told them: “It is a great service you give to the community and all those people and all of those ships I have seen on your charts.

“I just couldn’t believe you have got all of those ships to look after as well as people falling off cliffs and things.

District operations manager Mark Rodaway said: “If you added up all of the service given by the people in this room, it would be more than 250 years.

“The Coastguard is such a small service nationally, and we don’t always get the recognition, in terms of honouring these individuals.

“They have all worked so hard and are thoroughly deserving of these medals.”

The Wyke Regis Coastguard Rescue Team attends around 200 incidents a year and is one of the busiest teams in the country.

Wyke Regis station officer Mark Fagg said: “I think one of my most memorable experiences will be the Olympics. We did a fairly large job during the Games and there were so many people watching us.”

Mr Fagg, who works for the service from 6am until 6pm five days a week will receive a medal for long service next year.

He said that his stonemasonry work fits in ‘surprising well’ around his coastguard duties.

He added: “I will be 47 next year and receive my long service medal, but I will keep going for as long as I am able to.”