In 1809 the Preventative water guard was formed from Royal Navy sailors. This force actively sought out smugglers in inshore waters. As a secondary role the Preventative water guard was asked to assist in life saving after a shipwreck. The so-called Riding Officers undertook anti-smuggling operations on land and around this time they were strengthened by Navy shore patrols called the Coast blockade in areas of Kent and Sussex.

The Coast Guard was really born in 1822 when the Riding Officers and Preventative Water Guard were combined with the naval cruisers further out to sea. In 1831 the Coast blockade, which had built up a reputation as a ruthless anti-smuggling outfit, was absorbed into the Coast Guard. Indeed, at this time anti-smuggling efforts were becoming increasingly successful.

In 1824 the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) was founded and ever since the founding of the two organizations (only two years apart) they have both worked very closely on all matters surrounding life saving on the coast and inshore (and further out) as anti-smuggling operations have been coordinated by H.M.Customs and Excise. Many Coast Guards served on the lifeboats and I know of some people who still work in both organizations although this is becoming rarer as operational demands increase.

As the trading links of Britain's expanding empire increased so did coastal shipping in 19th century and so, unfortunately, did the number of shipwrecks and casualties at sea. In response to this need the Volunteer Life Saving Brigades were set up and at one time there were over 400 brigades. These groups worked under and were trained by the Coast Guard.

In the latter 19th century the Coast Guard had an ever-larger role as a reserve force for the Royal Navy. In 1854 3,000 Coast Guards served as untrained crewman on Navy vessels in the Crimean War.

These roles remained unchanged until the beginning of the 20th century although the third role faded and duties such as assisting ships in danger, taking charge of wrecks, operating life saving equipment and participating in lifeboat rescues were taken on board.

The secondary role of manning Royal Navy ships had tragic consequences for Coast Guard personnel as 1,400 lost their lives in September 1914 due enemy action in the Atlantic. After many further deaths the Coast guard was returned to shore duty where new wartime duties included looking out for spies and saboteurs also disposing of beached mines. The Army was too stretched to provide shore services normally carried out by the Coast Guard.

This was the beginning of a professional Search and Rescue (SAR) for the UK which was full time and the name Coastguard replaced the two words Coast Guard. At this time regular officers worked in the most dangerous areas and Auxiliary stations filled the gaps.

Following a tragic drowning in 1930 the Auxiliary force was organized into one body with 3 branches viz.: Life saving appliance, Coast Watchers and Intelligence Section.

In World War 2 the Coastguard was prepared as a War Watching Organization and all stations were put on constant watch. This needed extra personnel and Auxiliary Coastguards filled the gap. Both Regulars and Auxiliaries were issued with arms and wore battledress.In addition to these duties, the Coastguard conducted many successful life-saving operations including the recovery of ditched air crews.

In 1966 the role of the Coastguard was thoroughly examined by a working group which noted that there was a big increase in the number of pleasure boat incidents also incidents involving bathers and cliff climbers. A major expansion and modernization program was started with an emphasis on radio communications.

In 1994 HM Coastguard became an executive agency of the Department of Transport and in 1998 became an integral part of the Marine Coastguard Agency.

Barra is a very remote island, but has great strategic significance lying between the vast stretches of the open Atlantic and the more protected shipping lane that lies in the Minch and the Sea of the Hebrides. This shipping lane separates the Outer Hebrides (or Western Isles, as they are called now) from the Scottish mainland.

In the Second World War German U boats used gather in the Firth of Lorne near Oban and used to come out into the shipping lanes to look for the Atlantic convoys laden with supplies from the United states. Barra and most of the Western Isles was known as a restricted zone where only bone fide residents and service personnel were allowed. On Barra there was an Army lookout post with barracks and artillery on the elevated headland on the West Coast known as Grean Head. This spot had field of view of almost 180 degrees. The Army built a substantial road up to Grean Head and the remains of much building work can still been seen clearly today near the site of the present Coastguard VHF aerial.

In 1938 the Coastguard erected a lookout post on the East Side near Leanish. This had a good view of the Sea of the Hebrides. The original building was a simple wooden shed with one window and a telephone. This did not even have facilities to make a cup of tea so local people used to trek across the rough grazing land from their crofts with refreshments for the men and women of the Coastguard lookout team who spent 6 hours on their own at the lookout. All shipping movements were logged and the team kept a special lookout for ships in distress. During the War the lookout was manned continuously,24 hours a day, by a team of 16 people. There were also 10 people in the Coastguard Rescue Equipment (CRE) section. In those days the shipping lanes were much busier than they are today.

During one winter's day in the early 1940's an American coal-carrying vessel became stuck on rocks off the Leanish lookout post and was wrecked. This occurred during severe SE gales and within a few hours another vessel, that was Greek, saw the American vessel and thought that it was anchored safely whilst waiting for the storms to abate. The Greek vessel made for the same spot and it was also wrecked on the same rocks. The Barra lifeboat took the crew off the American ship. The Greek crew took to the sea in the ship's liferaft, which capsized before it got to the shore that was only a few hundred yards away. Two of the Greek crew swam directly to shore. Local people remember the shore being covered in a thick layer of fuel oil for days after this double shipwreck

A number of years later a supply vessel called a puffer became wrecked near the site of the present St Brendan's hospital and the crew were saved by Breeches Buoy equipment operated by the Coastguard. Indeed this equipment was widely used until the early seventies and the Barra team won a number of competitions.

After the war the Leanish lookout post became active only during severe/stormy weather. A slightly more comfortable brick built construction was made in 1949. This had more windows giving a wider angle of view and had facilities for a brew up on site! At this time VHF radios were in more common use. Mains electricity only came to Barra in 1969 and it was around this time that even the bad weather lookout was abandoned.

Since then there has been a informal coastwatch, as the pair of binoculars hanging up on the door next to the seaward looking window in virtually every house belonging to a seaman or a retired seaman will testify!

In 1991 a permanent building housing the coastguard rescue equipment (CRE) was built in the Horve area of Castlebay. Breeches Buoy equipment is no longer used.

The Coastguard has come a long way since its anti smuggling focus in 1822 almost 200 years ago. Technology is moving on a an ever increasing pace and in the future we will become increasingly reliant on computer and satellite systems to increase our knowledge base and communications capacity. The deployment of DSC (Digital Selective Calling) which dramatically increases data available to the Coastguard about a vessel in distress and hence improving likelihood of rescue is but one example of this.

However the sea will always remain dangerous and unpredictable and there will be a need for the Coastguard for at least the next Century.

Acknowledgements: (Information in this article has been freely adapted from the Coastguard Agency publication called " the History of the Coastguard " March 1995 TCA/PUB/007 that my Sector Manager Ian Burgess kindly sent me when I said I wanted some more information about the history of the Coastguard.

Local information has also obtained from Katie Douglas and Murdo Macneil who were kind enough to tell about the history.