Withernsea station history

1862

• Station established on account of the large amount of shipping which entered and left the Humber in addition to the great passing trade. A boathouse was built by the lighthouse.

1881

• A new life-boathouse constructed at a cost of £375 in Seaside Road in the middle of the town.

1882

• Old life-boathouse placed at disposal of the Board of Trade for storing Rocket Apparatus.

1913

• Station closed. Lifeboat transferred to new experimental station at Easington which was much nearer to area in which the majority of wrecks occurred and the placing of a motor lifeboat at Humber.

1974

• An inshore lifeboat station established with the placing on service of a D class lifeboat, which was kept on the seafront at the south end of the town.

1974

• The Thanks of the Institution inscribed on Vellum accorded to crew members Albert Usher and Terence Dawson for the rescue of a bather on 30 August.

1980

• Bronze Medal awarded to Helmsman Graham White in recognition of his courage and seamanship, when the lifeboat rescued three men from a dive boat which had a defective engine and was dragging her anchor three miles east-south-east of the lifeboat station in a north westerly gale and a very rough sea on 30 August. The two crew members, Graham Newdick and Leon Wallis, were each accorded the Thanks of the Institution inscribed on Vellum.

1983

• A new purpose-built boathouse constructed to accommodate the station's D class inflatable, the cost of which was met by funds raised by special local efforts.

1990

• A special framed Chairman's Certificate was awarded to the lifeboat station in recognition of the services carried out by the Honorary Secretary and crew members who strove tirelessly for over three hours assisting the Rescue Services in recovering  many dead and injured people from the Boeing 737 passenger aircraft which had crashed onto the M1 motorway embankment at Kegworth, with 126 people on board, during the evening of 8 January 1989. The crew were in a minibus on the M1 returning home after visiting the Earls Court Boat Show when the aircraft crashed.

1991

• Bronze Medal awarded to Helmsman John R Hartland in recognition of his high standard of seamanship and great courage, when on 15 May the D class lifeboat landed the sick skipper from the yacht Frangipani and transferred a crew member to the yacht, which was in difficulties two and a half miles east-north-east of the lifeboat station in a near gale and rough seas. The Thanks of the Institution inscribed on Vellum was accorded to crew member Paul Theobald for the way he took control of the yacht, and also to Paul Haynes Baker, Deputy Launching Authority and a member of the crew, for administering first aid to the sick skipper.

1998

• A new D class boathouse was completed in March, providing improved crew facilities.

1999

• A new D class lifeboat, D-541 Brian and Margaret Wiggins, was placed on service on 5 January. D394 Banks’ Staff II withdrawn.

2009

• The new station D class lifeboat D-701 Henley Eight was placed on service on 12 February. Lifeboat D-541 has been withdrawn.