Peter Halil talks with Tom Whiston - former Principal Keeper at Royal Sovereign Lighthouse

Keeping Watch

Welcome to Episode 5 of the second season of KEEPING WATCH - a fortnightly podcast for enthusiasts of lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation.

If you are based in the UK, you’ll be aware that Royal Sovereign lighthouse - off the Sussex coast - has been decommissioned and is in the process of being removed. You may have seen footage or images this week of its red and white lantern tower dismantled and standing on a temporary platform ready to be brought ashore to Shoreham in the next few weeks.

Later in this season, we have a special episode dedicated to Royal Sovereign, with a look back over its 50 year life span, and we’ll be talking about how the lantern tower itself has been saved, and about the exciting plans for its future.

This week though we are indebted once again to former keeper Peter Halil, for allowing me access to his wonderful audio and video archive. I’ve chosen Peter’s interview from the early 1990s with Tom Whiston, who served as a keeper between 1949 and 1986.

As well as some wonderful memories of his career, including the colleagues he worked with, the hobbies that keepers took up, and some of the treacherous storms he endured, Tom was also - I believe - the penultimate Principal Keeper at Royal Sovereign - and was first posted there even before it was lit, whilst the platform and tower were being constructed at Newhaven.

We’re keen to talk with other former light vessel and lighthouse keepers and crew - as well as others currently working in the lighthouse service. Again, you can email me at [e-mail].

Please spread the word to friends and family who might be interested in listening. And do like, follow or subscribe to this podcast so that you are notified when each new episode is published. A comment or a splendid review on your podcast platform of choice would be very welcome and really helps us to get noticed.

If you have an idea for a story you'd like us to cover, or an interesting person with a lighthouse connection we might interview, do please drop me a line. Or perhaps you are a fellow enthusiast and would like to contribute to the podcast either once or on a regular basis?

You can contact me at [e-mail].

KEEPING WATCH is brought to you in association with the ALK - The Association of Lighthouse Keepers - a charitable trust in the UK dedicated to keeping lighthouse heritage alive.

Visit Peter Halil's YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/peterhalil

Visit the Association of Lighthouse Keepers: www.alk.org.uk