Bembridge Lifeboat Station
| All-Weather Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Inshore Lifeboat | |
| Launch Method | Slipway |
| Address | Lane End, Bembridge, Isle of Wight, PO35 5TD |
| Telephone | 01983 875127 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
At the eastern tip of the Isle of Wight, beside the treacherous Bembridge Ledge, Bembridge has launched its lifeboat down a long pier slipway since 1867. Overlooking the approaches to two of the UK’s busiest ports, it runs a Tamar-class all-weather lifeboat and a D-class, and is remembered for Coxswain John Holbrook’s rescue of 110 people — together with the ship’s cat and dog — from the stranded troopship Empress Queen in 1916.
The first lifeboat began service at Bembridge in 1867, launched by carriage from a boathouse at Lane End; she was a 32-foot pulling-and-sailing self-righter, the City of Worcester, paid for by the people of that city.
When a motor lifeboat was allocated to the Isle of Wight, Bembridge was chosen, and in 1922 a remarkable concrete pier some 250 yards long was built out to the seaward edge of the ledge, with a boathouse on piles and a slipway running into deep water — allowing a fast launch clear of the rocks. The nearby pulling stations at Brooke and Brightstone Grange were closed as a result.
Bembridge became one of the first stations to receive the new D-class inflatable in 1964, and its all-weather boats grew steadily faster — from the 9.5-knot Jack Shayler and the Lees to the 25-knot Tamar of today. A new offshore boathouse was completed in 2010, and in 2017 the station marked 150 years of lifesaving. The Bembridge Ledge, a rocky reef running far out from the headland, remains the station’s defining hazard, and the long pier slipway exists precisely so the lifeboat can be launched into deep water clear of it in any state of tide.
