A lifeboat was first placed at Ramsgate in 1802 by the Harbour Trustees, operating until 1824. It was re-established by the trustees in 1851. From 1865, the station was jointly managed by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and the Board of Trade, passing solely to the RNLI in 1922.[1]
Tamar-class lifeboat 16-23 Diamond Jubilee (ON 1303)
The current lifeboat station, on the harbour wall between the inner and outer pools of the main harbour, opened in 1998, and currently operates an All-weather Tamar-class lifeboat, 16-23 Diamond Jubilee (ON 1303), on station since 2023, and a B-class (Atlantic 85) Inshore lifeboat, Claire & David Delves (B-878), on station since 2014.[2]
History
A lifeboat station was first established at Ramsgate Harbour in 1802 by the Ramsgate Harbour Trustees, pre-dating the formation of any national lifeboat organisation by more than 20 years, and is one of the oldest to operate in the British Isles. A lifeboat was purchased from Henry Greathead, and operated at Ramsgate until 1824.[1]
In 1851, Algernon Percy, 4th Duke of Northumberland, of Alnwick Castle, had been appointed president of the Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck (RNIPLS), the Institution becoming the RNLI in 1854. He set a competition for the design of a Self-righting lifeboat, with the reward of £100, which was won by James Beeching of Great Yarmouth. The prize-winning lifeboat was purchased for £250 by the Ramsgate harbour trustees, and placed on service at Ramsgate in late 1851. Whilst no formal naming records have been found, the boat was subsequently referred to as Northumberland.[3][4][5][6]
In 1863, management of Ramsgate harbour was transferred to the Board of Trade. With the sanction of the Board, at a meeting of the RNLI committee of management on 3 August 1865, it was agreed that a new lifeboat was to be placed at Ramsgate. Funding was appropriated from the Bradford Lifeboat Fund, a sum of £425 raised by the efforts of Charles Semon, Mayor of Bradford and eleven other gentlemen, to pay for the cost of the lifeboat, transporting carriage and equipment.[7][8][9]
A new lifeboat was ordered from Forrestt of Limehouse. At the same time, whilst the new Ramsgate boat was in construction, another new lifeboat was dispatched to Selsey Lifeboat Station, and their old 29-foot lifeboat Friend was transferred to Ramsgate, both boats transported free of charge between London and Chichester by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. In lieu of the new lifeboat not to be exhibited in Bradford, the committee of the Bradford Lifeboat Fund requested via letter from Charles Semon, Mayor, that an exact model be supplied, to be permanently exhibited to the subscribers of Bradford, which was agreed.[10]
A 40-foot Self-righting 'Pulling and Sailing' (P&S) lifeboat, one with both sail and (12) oars, was towed to her station from London by the Ramsgate steam tug Aid in February 1866. The lifeboat was named Bradford, and was the first of four Bradford lifeboats at Ramsgate.[6]
During the evacuation of troops from Dunkirk in 1940, Ramsgate lifeboat Prudential (ON 697) was the first little ship to the rescue. The lifeboat left Ramsgate at 14.20 in the afternoon with Coxswain Howard Primrose Knight in command with her own crew of eight men. They had been issued with gas masks, steel helmets and the lifeboat was loaded with four coils of grass warp and cans of fresh water for the troops. She took in tow eight boats, most of them wherries, manned by eighteen naval men, and when she reached Dunkirk her role was to tow the wherries between the beaches and the waiting ships. In total she rescued 2,800 troops from the beaches. For his 'gallantry and determination,' Coxswain Howard Knight was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.[11]
The Ramsgate-class lifeboat Prudential, on service since 1925, and the first motor-powered lifeboat on station at Ramsgate, was one of four lifeboats that took part in the Coronation Review of the Fleet by the Queen at Portsmouth on 15 June 1953[12]
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Trent-class lifeboat 14-02 Esme Anderson (ON 1197) at Ramsgate, 11 August 2009
Trent-class relief lifeboat 14-32 Corinne Whiteley (ON 1253) at Ramsgate, 4 April 2010
Tamar-class lifeboat 16-23 Diamond Jubilee (ON 1303) at Ramsgate, 25 May 2024
Royal National Lifeboat Institution 
