Tenby lifeboat station

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tenby_lifeboat_annie_collin_on_beach.

The Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners’ Royal Benevolent Society opened a lifeboat station in Tenby in 1852. The RNLI took it over two years later and built a lifeboat station beside Castle Beach in 1862. The upper photo (courtesy of the RNLI) shows a crowd on the beach around the self-righting lifeboat Annie Collin, stationed here 1885-1902. During the 19th century, six silver medals were awarded at Tenby for rescues off the coast.

In 1905 the RNLI built a new boathouse and slipway, with rollers so that the boat moved easily, on the north side of Castle Hill. This was a Tenby landmark for a century, and is shown from the sea in the lower photo (courtesy of the RNLI). The boat on the slipway is the RFA Sir Galahad, stationed at Tenby 1986-2006.

A new boathouse and slipway were completed on a site nearby in 2005, at a cost of £6.5m, for the UK’s first operational Tamar-class lifeboat, named Haydn Miller, which has been in service at Tenby since April 2006.

The old lifeboat station’s conversion into an unusual house was documented by the Channel 4 television programme Grand Designs.

tenby_old_lifeboat_station.During a "terrific gale" in January 1906, the Tenby lifeboat managed to rescue the crews of two ketches in the same call-out. One, called Eily, was carrying scrap steel from Pembroke Dock to Swansea when it sank near Caldey Island. The other ketch, called Excellent, was carrying pit props to Llanelli.

In 1923 the station received its first motor lifeboat.

In 1953 the lifeboat rescued seven men who were stationed on St Govan’s lightship. A storm was threatening the ship, which in the event remained afloat but was badly damaged. For this rescue coxswain Thomas Richards received a silver medal, while bowman William Thomas and motor mechanic William Rogers received bronze medals.

The all-weather lifeboat was supplement from 1972 with a D-class inshore boat, for which a boathouse was built on the north side of the harbour in 1976.

Coxswain William Alan Thomas received a silver medal for saving the skipper of the fishing vessel Silver Stream in September 1989 and rescuing two crew from the fishing vessel New Venture, which had been under tow from the Silver Stream. The crew received silver medal service certificates. For this rescue, Mr Thomas also received the Maud Smith Award for the bravest act of lifesaving during 1989.

The MBE honour was awarded to former mechanic Charles Crockford in 2002 and to Mr Thomas in 2004.

The lifeboat service in the UK is provided not by government but by the RNLI, a charity which relies on donations from the public. Since it was established in 1824, the RNLI is estimated to have saved c.140,000 lives. It employs some crew members but most, 40,000 in total, are volunteers who leave their work, families or beds whenever their lifeboat is needed.

Postcode: SA70 7BS    View Location Map

RNLI website

RNLI on HistoryPoints.org

Other SHIPWRECK HiPoints in this region:
Angle lifeboat – rescued everyone off a Scottish wreck in 1894 but whisky galore washed ashore
Worm’s Head Hotel – Shipwrecked French captain nursed to health here in 1910

FOOTNOTES: Other Tenby rescues

1938 - Silver medal to acting coxswain John Rees and bronze medal to motor mechanic Alfred Cottam for rescuing eight men from the steamer Fermanagh.
1963 - Framed Letter of Thanks was sent to the coxswain and crew for a service to the vessel Kilo.
1966 - silver medal to crew member Michael Wilson and bronze medal to bowman Joshua Richards for rescuing six children cut off by the tide. Michael Wilson also received the Maud Smith award for the bravest act of lifesaving that year.
1968 - Framed Letter of Thanks to second coxswain Ivor Crockford and Letter of Appreciation to assistant mechanic R Thomas for a service to the vessel Manta.
1969 - Framed Letter of Thanks to the coxswain and crew for recovering a child’s body after a cliff fall.
1982 - Bronze medal to coxswain Joshua Richards and Thanks of the Institution Inscribed on Vellum to crew members John John and Michael Wilson for rescuing the occupant of a catamaran.
1983 - Thanks of the Institution Inscribed on Vellum to coxswain William Alan Thomas and crew member Charles Hugh Crockford for rescuing two boys cut off by the tide.
1984 - Thanks of the Institution Inscribed on Vellum to crew member Nicholas Tebbutt for rescuing five people from a yacht.
1987 - Thanks of the Institution Inscribed on Vellum to inshore lifeboat helmsman Dennis Young and crew members John John, William James and Roy Young for rescuing an injured swimmer.