The Margate lifeboat was the 'Lord Southborough', under the command of Coxswain Edward Parker with a crew of ten. She was towed most of the way to Dunkirk by a Dutch barge, before the barge ran aground on a sandbank off Nieuport. Hearing voices in the darkness, the lifeboat closed to shore and found 80 French troops who had waded out to await rescue and who were promptly dragged aboard and taken to a waiting barge. Going back to the beach, she then started to take on men from the Border Regiment. On the morning of the 31st May, after 24 hours at sea and having rescued 600 men, the weather conditions began to deteriorate, which made inshore work impossible. Reluctantly, the lifeboat headed for home, but not before evacuating a detachment of the Naval beach party and picking up a further 17 men from a sinking whaler.
To hear more about the Margate Lifeboat, click here.
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