History Timeline

• 1802 – Great Yarmouth (Gorleston was still part of Suffolk in those days) received its first lifeboat, a 30 ft, 10-oared boat, built by Henry Gateshead of South Shields. Never called out on service.
• 1823 – The “Norfolk Association for Saving the Lives of Shipwrecked Mariners” founded. It stationed its first lifeboat at Great Yarmouth in 1825.
• 1829 – First call out for a Great Yarmouth lifeboat. “The Manby” (named after George Manby of rocket and line fame for saving shipwrecked sailors) went to the aid of the ‘Hammond’ from Shields, which had been driven ashore near the entrance to Gorleston harbour but the only crew from her that were saved were two that got ashore using a line thrown to people standing on the beach.
• 1831 – The first successful call out, when “The Manby” rescued the crew of the schooner “Fleece” which had ran aground on Scroby Sands.
• 1857 – RNLI took control of all lifeboats in the Great Yarmouth district.
• 1866 – January 13th. Twelve Gorleston Boatmen died when their private lifeboat “Rescuer” belonging to the “Ranger” Company capsized in a storm going to the aid of a stricken vessel. See page regarding Other Rescuers.
• 1866 – July. Gorleston receives its first lifeboat, with the arrival of the 33 ft, 10-oared, “Leicester”. The boathouse was built opposite what is now the Ocean Rooms. William Todd is appointed Coxswain.
• 1867 – December 3rd. Six Boatmen from the “Ranger” Company died when their Salvage Lifeboat, the “Rescuer” was in collision with a fishing vessel and immediately capsized during a rescue attempt on the brig “George Kendall” aground on Scroby Sands. Nineteen men from the brig were also lost.
• 1881 – Six lifeboatmen from the lifeboat “Abraham Thomas” drowned when their vessel overturned in heavy seas attempting to rescue a seaman from the stranded schooner “Guiding Star”.
• 1883 – Closure of Great Yarmouth No. 1 station.
• 1892 – “John Burch” stationed at Great Yarmouth No. 2 station. Retired 1912.
• 1897 – Gorleston station receives its first steam-driven lifeboat – the “City of Glasgow”.
• 1912 – “Hugh Taylor” stationed at Great Yarmouth No. 2 station.
• 1914 – Committee of Management approved the use of horses being abolished at Yarmouth and manual labour being employed instead.
• 1919 – Closure of Great Yarmouth lifeboat station.
• 1921 – Gorleston receives its first motorised lifeboat, the “John & Mary Meiklam of Gladswood” (the first of two lifeboats with this name). Only spent a few months there before being moved to Lowestoft.
• 1922 – The “Kentwell” is stationed at Gorleston.
• 1924 – Gorleston No 2 station closed. The “John & Mary Meiklam of Gladswood II” is stationed at Gorleston. Retired 1939.
• 1926 – Gorleston lifeboat station renamed “Great Yarmouth and Gorleston Lifeboat Station”.
• 1939 – The “Louise Stephens” is stationed at Gorleston.
• 1940 – The lifeboat Louise Stephens took part, with 18 other lifeboats, in the evacuation of the BEF from Dunkirk. She was taken over by a naval crew. What she did there is not known but an officer of the RNVR wrote afterwards to the Institution:- “I took the Great Yarmouth and Gorleston lifeboat across to Dunkirk on two nights. Her performance was a revelation and a delight. She came back with a hole in her after endbox”.
• 1963 – Great Yarmouth and Gorleston Lifeboat Station receives its first inflatable lifeboat (ILB).
• 1967 – Introduction of the high-speed, steel and aluminium constructed lifeboat “Khami”, named after a place in Rhodesia where the benefactor once lived.
• 1980 – The 44 ft, ‘Waveney’ class, “Barham” brought into service. Named after the warship HMS Barham which was torpedoed in 1941.
• 1996 – Current main lifeboat “Samarbeta” brought into service.
• 1996 – David Mason appointed Coxswain of the Samarbeta.
• 2002 – New inflatable lifeboat – Atlantic 75 “Seahorse IV” – brought into service.
• 2004 – January, Steve Bartram appointed Coxswain of the Samarbeta.
• 2007 – May 22, 150th anniversary Vellum presentation by Mr Peter Nicholson CBE, Vice President of the RNLI, to commemorate the RNLI operating in Great Yarmouth.

Forty-six RNLI medals have been awarded, one Gold, 21 Silver and 24 Bronze, the last medals voted in 1996. The last, a Bronze, was awarded to Coxswain David Mason after the lifeboat Samarbeta rescued six persons and saved the yacht Olline by taking it in tow 29 miles east-south-east of Lowestoft in a violent storm force wind, rough seas, and a very heavy swell during an 11 hour service on 29 August of that year.