Anyone remember David Cameron and his Big Society? It was his ‘flagship policy initiative’, which was intended to turn us from a nation of selfish stay-at-home layabouts into an eager army of volunteers, helping each other and filling the gaps that the welfare state could not cover. Apparently, no one had told the Prime Minister that the Big Society already existed and had done so for a very long time – that we didn’t need to be ‘incentivised’ to volunteer because we were already doing so.

The Royal National Lifeboat Insti­tution, for instance, was founded in 1824 and remains largely dependent on volunteers, with its funding predominantly coming from charitable donations. I do hope that Cameron finds time in his retirement to read Dominic Gregory’s thrilling and moving account of his experiences as a volunteer with the Dungeness lifeboat. It is a noble testament.

Gregory offered his services for the same reason so many others do: because he wanted to make a contribution in the place where, for reasons that are not explained, he had come to live with his wife and daughter. In time, he made his way along the shingle to the