Skegness Magazine

6th March 1974

Maroon marks 150 years of sea rescues
THE BIRTH of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution on 3 March 1824, was marked at midday on Monday – exactly 150 years later — by the firing of a maroon from the Skegness Lifeboat Station.
A board at the station tells the public that in that time 94,000 lives have been saved with the loss of 263 lifeboat-men.
Prayers for the lifeboat service are to be said , in churches next Sunday.
The anniversary will be celebrated by a dance on 2 April and two flag days — on 27 July and 17 August — when bands will be parading in honour of the occasion. Part of the proceeds of the civic ball this month will be given to the RNLI.
Skegness lifeboatmen will be among those from all over the country attending a garden party at Buckingham Palace on 16 July.
FIRST LIFEBOAT
The Skegness lifeboat station will be celebrating its own 150th anniversary next year. The first lifeboat was stationed at Gibraltar Point, being moved shortly afterwards to Skegness and the present boathouse on South Parade was built in 1892.
The present crew are: Ken Holland (coxswain), Joel Grunnill (2nd coxswain), Ron Chapman (bowman), Johnny Strezelecki (assistant mechanic), Morris Hatton (radio operator/signalman), Colin Moore (signalman) and Graham Phillips (emergency mechanic).

Picture: The lifeboat coxswain, Mr Ken Holland, about to fire the maroon in the putting green opposite the lifeboat station at midday on Monday to mark the 150th anniversary of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.