Qualla: Margate Lifeboat Station

Margate Lifeboat Station: Introduction

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Geof Sheppard, CC BY-SA 4.0. On 5 January 1857, in blizzard conditions off the Kent coast, the American transatlantic ship Northern Belle ran aground. Everyone aboard was rescued. The cost was the Margate lugger Victory, which capsized during the rescue efforts: all nine of her crew died. By the end of that year Margate had not one but two lifeboats in service - a 33-foot whaleboat operated by the Margate Boatmen's Company, and a 36-foot self-righting boat funded by Baroness Angela Burdett-Coutts and named, in her honour, the Coutts. The disaster had galvanised the town. What followed was nearly two centuries of Royal National Lifeboat Institution service from Margate, marked by tractors and Talus launchers, by the names of crew members on memorial vellum, by Princesses Margaret and Alexandra at naming ceremonies, and by the unforgiving rhythm of the North Sea at the eastern tip of Kent.

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Image: Geof Sheppard | CC BY-SA 4.0

Margate Lifeboat Station: Baroness Burdett-Coutts and Forgotten Trust

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Clint Mann, CC BY-SA 2.0. The first official RNLI takeover came in 1860. The Coutts had been renamed Angela and Hannah by then, but local boatmen had lost faith in her after rough-weather trials went badly. At a meeting of the RNLI committee on 2 February 1860, management of the Margate boat was transferr...

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Image: Clint Mann | CC BY-SA 2.0

Margate Lifeboat Station: Eight Horses in the Surf

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rodw, Public domain. Launching a Victorian lifeboat was its own ordeal. Margate's boat sat on a carriage at the stone pier, and horses had to drag it down to the sea before the crew could even start rowing. On more than one occasion the horses refused to face the waves; on 4 February 1898 a heavy sea...

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Image: Rodw | Public domain

Margate Lifeboat Station: Dunkirk and the Distinguished Service Medal

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Geof Sheppard, CC BY-SA 4.0. During the Second World War, Coxswain Edward Drake Parker took the Lord Southborough to the Dunkirk beaches in May 1940. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his work there. The Thanks of the Institution Inscribed on Vellum went to ten members of his crew, names wor...

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Image: Geof Sheppard | CC BY-SA 4.0

Margate Lifeboat Station: 1978 and a Helicopter Crew

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Geof Sheppard, CC BY-SA 4.0. On 11 January 1978 the same storm that destroyed Herne Bay Pier washed away most of Margate's iron jetty, leaving the boathouse and slipway cut off from shore. The North Foreland was trapped inside. Royal Air Force helicopters airlifted crew members onto the marooned boathouse so...

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Image: Geof Sheppard | CC BY-SA 4.0