Civil Service lifeboats

RNLB 14-06 Windsor Runner (Civil Service No. 42)

Civil Service lifeboats are a group of lifeboats belonging to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution which have been funded by The Lifeboat Fund. They usually have the Civil Service designation and number included in the name, such as RNLB E-001 Public Servant (Civil Service No. 44), which was on service at Tower lifeboat station on the Thames between 2002 and 2012.

Since it was formed, The Lifeboat Fund has donated over £26 million to the RNLI, making it the most regular and significant donor for the institution. Civil servants across the UK organise fundraising collections and promote the lifesaving work of the RNLI. All money raised by the fund goes directly to support the RNLI.

The Lifeboat Fund is an official charity, formerly CISPOTEL, established in 1866 by civil servants, and is run by the Civil Service. It raises funds through donations from both serving and retired employees, from Royal Mail and BT staff, and from legacies.

In addition to providing (so far) 55 lifeboats of all different class types, the money is also put towards training, purchasing kit, and refurbishing lifeboat stations, most recently providing a £400,000 contribution to the new Tower lifeboat station and pontoon on the Thames. ^{[1] [2]}

Numbering

The first 29 lifeboats share the designation (Civil Service) and numbers 1–11. When a boat was replaced, the new boat would receive the number from the previous boat, and often carry the same name. In the 1950s, this was changed, so that the boats were consecutively numbered, starting with Greater London II (Civil Service No. 30).

Fleet

ON [a]	Op. No. [b]	Name	C.S.No. [3]	Class	In service [4]	Station	Comments
Pre-464	–	Civil Service	(No. 1)	32-foot Self-righting (P&S)	1866–1878	Wexford	[Note 1]
301	–	Civil Service No. 1	No. 1	34-foot Self-righting (P&S)	1878–1897	Wexford No. 2	[Note 2]
415	–	Civil Service No. 1	No. 1	40-foot Self-righting (P&S)	1898–1925	Margate No. 2
688	–	The Lord Southborough	No. 1	45-foot Watson	1925–1951 1951–1955	Margate Relief fleet
Pre-604	–	Charles Dibdin	No. 2	37-foot Self-righting (P&S)	1875–1888	Tynemouth	[5]
204	–	Charles Dibdin	No. 2	37-foot Self-righting (P&S)	1889–1905	Tynemouth
552	–	Charles Dibdin	No. 2	43-foot Self-righting (P&S)	1905–1932	North Deal
762	–	Charles Dibdin	No. 2	41-foot Watson	1933–1959	Walmer
284	–	Civil Service No. 3	No. 3	37-foot Self-righting (P&S)	1877–1899	Portpatrick
437	–	Civil Service No. 3	No. 3	37-foot Self-righting (P&S)	1900–1922 1922–1924 1924–1926 1926–1927	Portpatrick Relief fleet Montrose Relief fleet
704	–	Greater London	No. 3	Ramsgate	1928–1941 1941–1943 1943–1945 1945–1955 1955–1957	Southend-on-Sea Relief fleet Yarmouth Southend-on-Sea Relief fleet
34	–	Civil Service No. 4	No. 4	40-foot Self-righting (P&S)	1884–1895	Walmer	[Note 3]
394	–	Civil Service No. 4	No. 4	40-foot Self-righting (P&S)	1897–1912	Walmer	[Note 4]
756	–	Civil Service No. 4	No. 4	35ft 6in Self-righting motor	1932–1948	Whitehills	[Note 5]
867	–	Lady Scott	No. 4	46-foot 9in Watson	1949–1981 1981–1986	Portrush Relief fleet
80	–	Civil Service No. 5	No. 5	34-foot Self-righting (P&S)	1886–1905	Maryport
544	–	Civil Service No. 5	No. 5	38-foot Watson (P&S)	1905–1931	Maryport
753	–	Civil Service No. 5	No. 5	45-foot 6in Watson	1932–1950 1950–1956 1956–1958	Donaghadee Port St Mary Relief fleet
273	–	Civil Service No. 6	No. 6	42-foot Self-righting (P&S)	1890–1895	Douglas No. 2	[Note 6]
384	–	Civil Service No. 6	No. 6	42-foot Self-righting (P&S)	1896–1924	Douglas
784	–	Civil Service No. 6, Swn-Y-Mor	No. 6	46-foot Watson	1936–1963 1964–1967 1967–1972	St Davids Eyemouth Relief fleet
289	–	Civil Service No. 7	No. 7	42-foot Self-righting (P&S)	1890–1895	Kingstown No. 2	[Note 7]
409	–	Dunleary	No. 7	45-foot Watson	1898–1913	Kingstown No. 2
658	–	Dunleary	No. 7	45-foot Watson	1919–1938 1938–1939	Kingstown Relief fleet	[Note 8]
828	–	The Princess Royal	No. 7	46-foot Watson	1939–1968 1968–1969 1969–1976	Hartlepool Humber No. 2 Relief fleet
853	–	Winston Churchill	No. 8	46-foot 9in Watson	1948–1979 1979–1982	Blyth Relief fleet
884	–	St Cybi	No. 9	52-foot Barnett Mk I	1950–1980 1981–1986	Holyhead Relief fleet
897	–	St. Andrew	No. 10	41-foot Watson	1952–1959 1959–1961 1961–1968 1968–1973 1973–1976 1976–1977 1977–1982	Whitehills Relief fleet Girvan Arklow Relief fleet Girvan Relief fleet
888	–	North Foreland	No. 11	46-foot 9in Watson	1951–1978 1978–1981	Margate Relief fleet
921	–	Greater London II	No. 30	46-foot 9in Watson	1955–1976 1977–1989	Southend-on-Sea Beaumaris
920	–	Dunnet Head	No. 31	47-foot Watson	1956	Thurso	[Note 9]
940	–	Pentland	No. 31	47-foot Watson	1957–1970 1970–1974 1974–1985 1986–1990	Thurso Relief fleet The Mumbles Workington	[Note 10]
948	–	Charles Dibdin	No. 32	42-foot Watson	1959–1975 1975–1977 1977–1979 1979–1982 1982–1988	Walmer Relief fleet Eastbourne Aldeburgh Relief fleet
952	–	Duke of Cornwall	No. 33	52-foot Barnett Mk II	1960–1984 1984 1984–1989	Lizard-Cadgwith Padstow Relief fleet
971	–	Joseph Soar	No. 34	47-foot Watson	1963–1985 1986–1988 1988–1990	St Davids Dunbar Shoreham Harbour
987	70-001	Charles H. Barrett	No. 35	Clyde	1966–1968 1968–1975 1975–1988	Trials Clovelly Relief fleet
1026	44-008	Eric Seal	No. 36	Waveney	1974–1996	Eyemouth	Eric Seal
1037	54-03	Edward Bridges	No. 37	Arun	1975–1994	Torbay
1046	37-33	Silver Jubilee	No. 38	Rother	1978–1991 1991–1993	Margate Relief fleet
–	B-527	Percy Garon	No Number	B-class (Atlantic 21)	1976–1986 1986–1996 1996 1996–1998 1998	Southend-on-Sea Relief fleet Red Bay Relief fleet Arran (Lamlash)	[Note 11] [6]
1070	52-16	Richard Evans	No. 39	Arun	1981–2000 2000–2003	Portrush Relief fleet
1095	47-004	St Cybi II	No. 40	Tyne	1985–1997 1997–2006	Holyhead Relief fleet
1167	12-009	The Princess Royal	No. 41	Mersey	1990–2015 2015–2016	St Ives Relief fleet
1204	14-06	Windsor Runner	No. 42	Trent	1995–2004 2004–2008 2008 2008–	Blyth Relief fleet Dunbar Relief fleet
1237	17-17	Fraser Flyer	No. 43	Severn	1999–	Relief fleet
–	E-001	Public Servant	No. 44	E-class Mk1	2002–2012	Tower
–	H-003	The Hunstanton Flyer	No. 45	Hovercraft	2003–	Hunstanton
–	D-654	Angel of Holyhead	No. 46	D-class (IB1)	2005–2016 2017–2024	Holyhead Boarding Boat (BB-654)
–	D-655	Guardian Angel	No. 47	D-class (IB1)	2005–2015 2015–	Relief fleet Training
–	B-806	Mudeford Servant	No. 48	B-class (Atlantic 85)	2006–2024	Mudeford
–	D-697	Stranraer Saviour	No. 49	D-class (IB1)	2008–2019 2019–	Stranraer Boarding Boat (BB-697)
–	B-826	Sgt. Bob Martin	No. 50	B-class (Atlantic 85)	2008–	Poole
–	B-837	Charles Dibdin	No. 51	B-class (Atlantic 85)	2009–	New Brighton
–	D-738	David Roulston	No. 52	D-class (IB1)	2010–2022 2022–2024	Portrush Relief fleet
1353	13-46	Duke of Edinburgh	No. 53	Shannon	2023–	Wells-next-the-Sea
–	D-868	Mr Eric Sharpe	No. 54	D-class (IB1)	2022–	Cromer	[7]

1. ON is the RNLI's Official Number of the boat.
2. Op. No. is the RNLI's Operational Number of the boat carried on the hull.

Pre ON numbers are unofficial numbers used by the Lifeboat Enthusiast Society to reference early lifeboats not included on the official RNLI list.

See also

• List of RNLI stations
• List of former RNLI stations
• Royal National Lifeboat Institution lifeboats

Notes

1. Not numbered, but it was the first Civil Service funded lifeboat. Later named Harriott Forteath at Whitby
2. Later named Helen Blake at Fethard
3. Damaged beyond repair, 1895
4. Later in Reserve fleet to 1919, and at Selsey as Reserve No. 3, and then as James William and Caroline Courteney at Fowey
5. Damaged beyond repair, 1948
6. Wrecked, 1895
7. Damaged beyond repair, 1895
8. Transferred to Lytham St Annes in 1939, Renamed Dunleary without Civil Service No.7 designation
9. Dunnet Head (Civil Service No. 31) was destroyed by a fire on 10 December 1956 at the boathouse in Thurso, in its first year on service. It was replaced by Pentland (Civil Service No. 31), keeping the same Civil Service number, but this time funded entirely by the RNLI.
10. Provided by the RNLI to replace Dunnet Head (ON 920)
11. The 1981 Report of the Civil Service and Post Office Lifeboat Fund has Percy Garon listed as No 39. However, 52-16 Richard Evans was designated No. 39 in 1981, Percy Garon now designated (Civil Service) with no number.

References

1. "The Lifeboat Fund and the RNLI". RNLI. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
2. "The Lifeboat Fund". Civil Service LF. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
3. "125 years of CISPOTEL support for the RNLI" (PDF). CISPOTEL. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
4. Leonard, Richie; Denton, Tony (2025). Lifeboat Enthusiasts Handbook 2025. Lifeboat Enthusiasts Society. pp. 2–136.
5. "The Civil Service Life-Boats". The Lifeboat. 28 (312). November 1932. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
6. "Annual Report of the Civil Service and Post Office Lifeboat Fund" (PDF). Civil Service. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
7. Parker, Clare. "Cromer RNLI's new inshore lifeboat named during special ceremony". The Lifeboat Fund. Retrieved 13 February 2024.