Walton and Frinton Lifeboat Station

In 1894 there were strong disagreements amongst the members of the RNLI crew and committee which resulted in some members of the crew resigning and leaving the Institution, they setting up a rival private lifeboat. They bought a second hand lifeboat which they named True-to-the-Core.[6] For the next twenty years Walton was covered by two lifeboats which resulted in tense rivalry between the RNLI's boat and the private lifeboat.[7] In 1897 the private lifeboat service acquired a new lifeboat, again named True-to-the-Core, built by John Houston at Rowhege.[8] The boat cost £437 and was launched on 12 October 1897.[9] This lifeboat was permanently kept at anchor on the north side of Walton Pier.

In 1900 the Honourable Artillery Company was retired from Walton. She had been on station for 16 years and was responsible for saving the lives of 132 people. Her replacement was a Norfolk and Suffolk class lifeboat called James Stevens No.14 (ON 432).[10] The private lifeboat True-to-the-Core was inspected by the RNLI in 1911 and following tests carried out in Harwich the RNLI rejected the lifeboat and refused to accept her into the RNLI fleet. It is thought that she was sold to Turkey where she was used to start that country’s Lifeboat service.[11]

During the period of World War One (1914 – 1918) the Walton and Frinton lifeboat was kept very busy. During hostilities she assisted both Allied and neutral vessels in trouble off the Essex coast. One notable rescue took place on 29 to 30 December 1917. The lifeboat James Stevens No.14 was called out in an east by north gale with sleet and driving rain to the 780-ton SS Peregrine[12] of the General Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. of London. The ship had been en route from Rotterdam to London when she had become stranded on the north-east side of Longsand, just off Clacton-on-Sea. After a difficult and time consuming search the lifeboat came across the vessel and got alongside. All 59 passengers and the Chief Steward were saved and taken off and placed on a nearby patrol vessel. The lifeboat then returned to the ship which had now broken in half and saved the remaining 32 crew members. The rescue had taken all night and the lifeboat only left for shore at 9 am in the morning. The James Stevens No.14 had been badly damaged during the rescue. Coxswain William Hammond was awarded a RNLI Silver Medal for his part in this rescue, and the second Coxswain John Byford was given a Bronze Medal.[13]

James Stevens No.14 was at Walton and Frinton for a total of 28 years and during this period she was launched a total of 126 times and is credited with saving 227 lives. In 1928 the lifeboat James Stevens No.14 was replaced by a new lifeboat by the name of E.M.E.D. (ON 705).[14] This lifeboat was a Ramsgate motor class lifeboat and was built by J. S. White of Cowes, Isle of Wight. This lifeboat had a busy time whilst on station.

In May 1940 the Walton and Frinton crew manned the E.M.E.D. after they had been instructed to take the lifeboat to Dover. She arrived at the port on 31 May. She was needed, along with 17 other RNLI lifeboats, to help in the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force and the French Army from Dunkirk. Much to the disappointment of the crew, the lifeboat was then immediately commandeered by the Royal Navy and given to the Navy to crew. E.M.E.D. had a moderate draft which made her particularly suitable for the task of transporting hundreds of men from the beaches out to the big ships waiting to evacuate them back to England. The lifeboat along with others was towed across the English Channel by a drifter. Working inside Dunkirk harbour E.M.E.D. survived three enemy air attacks off Gravelines which destroyed boats with which she was in tow.[14] E.M.E.D. got back to Dover with a rope around her propeller.[14] This was removed and she returned to France where she remained until the evacuation was completed. Whilst taking part a shell killed the officer in charge of the lifeboat.[14] The lifeboat sustained some damage in the operation, but when repaired, she returned to Walton and Frinton. During the Second World War the E.M.E.D. lifeboat was launched a total of 57 times and is credited with saving 20 lives.[4]

In 1953 the station received a new lifeboat to replace E.M.E.D. This lifeboat was a 46 ft 9 in Watson class lifeboat called Edian Courtauld (ON 910) and it was to be the last new lifeboat allocated to Walton for 58 years. Built at a cost of £29,687 by J.S.White of Cowes, she was a gift from the late Augustine Courtauld,[15] arctic explorer, yachtsman and member of the Institution’s committee of management, named after his mother. Originally powered by twin Ferry VE4 diesels, these were replaced by 65 hp Parsons Barracuda engines in 1967. Edian Courtauld served at Walton until July 1977, launching on service 224 times and saving 143 lives.

In 1977, Edian Courtauld was replaced on station by a self-righting 48 ft 6 in Oakley class boat. The Earl and Countess Howe (ON968), Operational Number 48-01, had been built in 1963 by William Osborne at Littlehampton at a cost of £40,348. Powered by twin Gardner 6LX 110 hp diesels, she had spent 14 years stationed at Yarmouth, Isle of Wight. She was the only 48 ft 6 in Oakley with an aft cockpit, open to the stern. The other four of the class having enclosed amidships cockpits. Like the smaller 37 ft Oakleys, the larger boat used a water ballast transfer system for self-righting. The Earl and Countess Howe served at Walton until January 1984, launching on service 64 times and saving 21 lives.

In 1984 The Earl and Countess Howe was retired from Walton and a 48 ft 6 in Solent class lifeboat was sent to the station. She was called City of Birmingham (ON 1012), Operational Number 48-009. The Solent was a steel-hulled development of the 48 ft 6 in Oakley and was inherently self-righting by virtue of its watertight wheelhouse and thus dispensed with the Oakley's complicated water ballast system. This lifeboat was built in 1970 by Camper & Nicholson at Gosport at a cost of £72,000.[16] The funds for the cost were raised in an appeal organized in the City of Birmingham, hence her name, and she was stationed at Exmouth from 1970 to 1983. The City of Birmingham was kept very busy during her time at the station but her more notable launches were to several of the Radio Ships moored off the Essex coast including to the Radio Caroline ship called Ross Revenge. This lifeboat was stationed at Walton until August 1993 and during her service there she launched on service 186 times, saving 40 lives.

City of Birmingham was one of the last displacement hull boats in RNLI service and almost all other stations had received new fast lifeboats capable of 15-17 knots, which Walton and Frinton had conspicuously missed out on. In 1993 the 2nd prototype Tyne-class lifeboat Sam and Joan Woods (ON 1075), Operational Number 47-002, built in 1982 and having spent nine years in the Relief fleet was allocated to the station. The Tyne was designed as a fast slipway launched boat, but many were moored afloat in places where their protected propellers were required for inshore working in shallow waters, as at Walton and Frinton. Sam and Joan Woods stayed at Walton for less than three years, launching on service 67 times and saving 10 lives, before returning to the Relief fleet and being replaced in May 1996 by the newer 1989 built Tyne Kenneth Thelwall II (ON1154), Operational Number 47-036. This boat had been stationed at Ramsgate from 1990 to 1994. In 1998 work was carried out on the station facilities. There were improvements to the fuel storage room and the crew facilities were improved.

In 2005 the station was once again improved. This time the RNLI had a new berth and wave break constructed alongside the pier. These improvements allowed a quicker and safer boarding response time on call-outs for the crew and also included storage and maintenance facilities. The work was carried out at a cost of around one million pounds.[17] The new wave-break was officially opened on 1 May 2005[18] by the RNLI’s Chief of Operations Michael Vlasto.[19]