Gary Bourn – Rye's Own Magazine

SAP 201 Comes Home on Sunday

SAP 201 Will be at the Rye Fire-fighters Open Day on Sunday (10 September 2017)

The men featured in the picture are part of a team of brilliant firemen who kept this town safe while they were ‘on watch’ with their famous Fire Appliance SAP 201.

On Sunday (10 September 2017) SAP 201 returns to Rye, 45 years after she left service in Rye, restored to her original condition by Mike Garrett, to be at the Rye Fire-Fighters open day.

The very latest picture of SAP 201 on her first road trip under her own power

Surviving members of her old crew will be there to greet her plus the rest of Rye’s fire-fighters including Rye Fire Chief Gary Bourn, whose grandfather and father both fought many blazes with SAP 201.

The Open Day runs from 10 am. – 2 pm. at the Fire Station in Mill Lane. Come along and see one of Rye’s greatest fire fighting machines looking just as she did 50 years ago.

The Last Shout

They came in their Hundreds

They came in their hundreds to St Mary’s Church on Thursday 21 April to say last goodbyes to one of Rye’s best known heroes, George Michael Albert Bourn M. B. E. The Church was packed, every pew was filled. Rye Firemen and Firefighters from other stations were there in force.

There was a hushed silence as Gary Bourn paid tribute to his father’s life and recalled many of the incidents in Michael’s very active and eventful time from his birth on 16 August 1938. Continue reading The Last Shout

Michael Bourn MBE

One of Rye’s Great Fire Chiefs

It is with great personal sadness I have to report the death of one of Rye’s truly great characters.

I have known ‘Mick’ Bourn since school-days, he was in the same class at Rye Primary.

Mick worked with his dad’s painting and decorating business. He joined the Rye Fire Service when his dad was fire chief at Rye and learned the secrets of Rye’s inter-connecting buildings, roof and wall spaces. This knowledge became Continue reading Michael Bourn MBE