Launching the third Albert Edward from Clacton Pier

How it started

In 1789 a major sea tragedy occurred which led directly to the establishment of a Lifeboat service in Britain. The ship, the Adventure, run ashore on the River Tyne in a storm. Thousands of onlookers watched in helpless horror as all the crew drowned, as to go out in that weather would mean certain death. This spurred the members of a social club in South Shields, The Gentlemen of the Lawe House, to offer a two guinea reward for the best Lifeboat design. The instigated the construction of The Original, the first Lifeboat built for the job, and not a conversion. It was built by Henry Greathead, using a design of Greathead`s and local parish clerk, William Wouldhave. This 30 foot long boat with 12 oars and carrying 7 cwt of cork for buoyancy, served for 40 years on the Tyne, and several others were built for various places in Britain. However they all operated independently until a member of the Lifeboat crew on the Isle of Man, Sir William Hillary wrote an appeal to the nation in 1823. He recognized the disorganisation and consequent gaps in Lifeboat cover and his appeal invoked widespread sympathy for victims of shipwreck, and gained a lot of support. Thomas Wilson M.P. took up the cause and at a meeting in The City of London Tavern, on March 4th 1824 the National Institution for the Preservation of life from shipwreck was formed (Flag Day) with Thomas Wilson M.P. as chairman, King George 4th as Patron and the Prime Minister as President. 

 In 1838 it was Grace Darling, the world's greatest lifeboat heroine, whose fame is due to a single act of courage on 7th September 1838 when she was just 23 years old. The previous night, in awful conditions, the SS Forsfarshire had run aground on the Farne Islands where Grace's father was the lighthouse keeper.

In 1854 the organisation changed its name to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).

The first lifeboat in Clacton

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution first placed a lifeboat at Clacton on Sea in 1878.
The boat , donated by the Freemasons of England, was transported free of charge by the
Great Eastern Railway to Weeley, the nearest station to Clacton at the time, and from there by
horse and cart to the town where a boathouse had been specially constructed at Anglefield. (see below)

The naming ceremony took place on the 10th July 1878 to a alleged crowd of 12,000
at a time when the population of the new town was only a few hundred.

An artist's impression of the ceremonial launching of Clacton's first lifeboat in July 1878. The occasion attracted thousands of spectators, and was long remembered afterwards. There were frequent wrecks on the offshore sands and the coastguards had previously maintained a rescue boat. This new vessel was a gift of the Freemasons to the RNLI and was named Albert Edward after their Grand Master, the Prince of Wales.

Miss Wool, a daughter of the Clacton's first Lifeboat Committee Chairman, named the Lifeboat
“Albert Edward” in honour of the then Prince of Wales, later to become King Edward VII.
The Prince maintained a personal interest in the boat and at the branches Annual Dinner,
held at the Royal Hotel in 1883, presented a joint of beef to the crew.
In those early days when called on service, the "Albert Edward" required pulling along
Marine Parade East and down Pier Gap before being launched into the North Sea.
It took six horses to achieve this, the same horses that were used to mobilise Clacton's
Fire Engine, and it was not long before the animals learnt to tell the difference between the
sound of the fire bells and the rockets. On hearing the sound of one they would set forth in the
right direction unaided.

Such was the local interest, and to enable preparation for the return of the lifeboat, a rocket would be fired as the Albert Edward came into view. The crew hoisted a flag from her topmast to indicate that there were ship wrecked souls on board as there was no better way of relaying information in those days.

Just as today, the RNLI provided every possible method of procuring a rescue at sea but one Clacton Lifeboatman proved to be better equipped with something the Institution could not provide. When on service to a steam trawler from Boulogne in 1881, one of the French crew slipped as he was being transferred from the stricken vessel and would surely have perished in the wild sea save for grabbing hold of a Lifeboatman`s beard and clinging desperately until being brought into the safety of the boat.

                                                                     1876 - 1891        Robert Legerton

                                                                     1891 - 1901        William Schofield

                                                                     1901 - 1907        William Salmon

                                                                     1907 - 1919        George Grigson

                                                                     1919 - 1924        Jesse Salmon

                                                                     1924 - 1950        Charles Ellis

                                                                     1950 - 1953        Albert Potter

                                                                     1953 - 1968        George Ellis

                                                                     1968 - 1975        Charles Bolingbroke

                                                                     1975 - 1982        Arthur Harman

                                                                     1982 - 1983        Dick Harman

                                                                     1982 - 1984        Mick Lynn

                                                                     1984 - 1999        Dave Wells (Senior Helmsman)

                                                           1999 -  2004       Robert Bradbrook (Senior Helmsman)

                                                            2004 -                 Tim Dye