Kent: Volunteers past and present mark 200 years of the RNLI

Dungeness lifeboat still depends on its launch crew

Kent volunteers past and present are celebrating the 200th anniversary of the RNLI.

Gravesend Lifeboat Station manager Ian Smith said today's volunteers were standing "on the shoulders of giants" as "all those who have gone before us have left an incredible legacy".

The RNLI was formed on 4 March 1824 and has saved over 146,277 lives at sea.

The charity will be launching an exhibition at The Historic Dockyard Chatham later this month.

Opening on 21 March, Nick Ball, a manager at Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust, said it would be "the first time such a huge collection of stories and RNLI artefacts have been brought together in one space".

"Over the years, The Historic Dockyard Chatham has given safe harbour to the RNLI's collection of historic lifeboats, so it's particularly fitting that we have been chosen as the space to tell the RNLI's 200 year story," he added.

Judith Richardson started at Dungeness Lifeboat Station as one of the charity's last 'lady launchers' - the team of women who helped to launch the lifeboat until 1977.

"I used to go up there and saw the ladies helping, and I thought, 'I'd like to do something like that'," she told BBC Radio Kent.

"I kept going up there, and then one day, one of the ladies in charge said, 'would you like to help?' So I did."

She spoke of her pride that her two sons had continued the tradition of joining the charity.

• The lady launchers of Dungeness

Later in her 56 years of service, Ms Richardson took on fundraising and water safety education roles.

She was recognised for her efforts in 2023 with a British Empire Medal.

Dungeness' current lifeboat at sea

Gravesend Lifeboat Station, which is one of nine RNLI stations in Kent, was opened in 2002.

It has nine full-time commanders and 50 volunteer crew.

"It's an incredibly dynamic area with an awful lot of commercial traffic," said Mr Smith.

"We're pretty well established, but still a bit of a mystery to a lot of the population.

"You still talk to people, even the emergency services, who don't even know there is a lifeboat station here.

"To pick up the torch and continue it and move it forward to the future, it is only right that we mark the incredible sacrifice and skills of our predecessors."

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