Walmer and Deal lifeboats

Walmer Lifeboat Station
RNLI Lifeboat station
Walmer Lifeboat Station on The Strand, Walmer. Built in 1871
Country	UK
State	Kent
Town	Walmer
Location	Walmer lifeboat station, The Strand, Walmer, Kent, UK
- coordinates	51°12′48.71″N 1°24′10.66″E / 51.2135306°N 1.4029611°E / 51.2135306; 1.4029611Coordinates: 51°12′48.71″N 1°24′10.66″E / 51.2135306°N 1.4029611°E / 51.2135306; 1.4029611
Founded	1830
Owner	Royal National Lifeboat Institution
Visitation	Summer Months only
Walmer, Kent

Walmer Lifeboat Station was established in 1830. Over two thousand ships are believed to have been wrecked on the Goodwin Sands, and the masts of several wrecks are visible from the shore at low tide. Hence there have always been two lifeboats located at the joined towns of Deal and Walmer along the coast opposite the sands.

In 1830, Gold Medals were awarded to Captain P Graham RN, Lieut HW Johnson RN and Lieut WS Watts RN, and a Silver Medal to John Durban for rescuing 13 crew from the ship Mountaineer and three other Deal boatmen on 24 November 1829. It was 26 years later however, in 1856, that an actual lifeboat station was established.

In 1896, crew member E Young drowned when he was trying to board the Steamship Trapian from the lifeboat. From 1912 to 1927 the station was closed, but when it re-opened the lifeboat was kept on a launching cradle at the head of the beach and soon afterwards, from 1930, the station had its first motor lifeboat.

During World War I, Deal had two lifeboats, the RNLB Charles Dibdin and the RNLB Frances Forbes Barton; William Stanton was coxswain of the “Frances Forbes Barton” In 1944 a Bronze Medal was awarded to Coxswain Joseph Mercer for rescuing 13 men from an anti-submarine boat stranded on the Goodwin Sands.

Walmer's last all-weather lifeboat was the RNLB Hampshire Rose. In 1964 an inshore lifeboat (ILB) station was established with a D-class (EA16). The RNLB Hampshire Rose was retired from service on 5 May 1990 and, with the addition of a B-class Atlantic 21 lifeboat (for whose launching rig the boathouse was then extended in 1992), Walmer was permanently established as an inshore lifeboat station. A new Atlantic 21, RNLB James Burgess (B-589), was placed on service in 1992. in the same year as a visit by the Queen Mother as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and on 22 January 1997 a new D-class lifeboat, RNLB Lord Kitchener (D-514), was placed on service.

A new Atlantic 85-class lifeboat, RNLB Donald Mclauchlan (B-808), was put on station in December 2006, along with a new D-class (IB1), RNLB Douggie Rodbard (D-663).