Ian Davies (Hoylake RNLI) wonders if you recognise anyone in this photo taken at the old lifeboat station?
Ian comments: “This photo is from about 1970 and was taken after a church parade when guests were invited back to the Lifeboat station to have a tour and listen to a talk by the Coxswain or another dignitary and we think in this case pupils of Kingsmead school.”
Leave a comment if you remember the day!
If this is 1970 then that should be the Liverpool Class Lifeboat the Thomas Corbett which was on station from 1970 until 1974 when she was replaced by the Rother Class boat named Mary Gabriel. I am guessing it was not a talk by the coxswain as the kids are not covering their ears ;>D
If it is prior to 1970 then this would be another Liverpool Class boat named Oldham IV, I don’t know if there are differences between the sterns of the two boats, but it may help date the picture more accurately. I don’t suppose you have any more images from this trip do you, I would love to see them. In fact any old lifeboat photographs from Hoylake please.
I think that the gentleman on the far right is ex-WW2 submariner Cdr W T J (Jack) Fox RN (Ret’d.) who was referred to in a recent post on The Royal.
As Julian Triggs says, the lifeboat is either the Oldham IV or the Thomas Corbett.
As some will know, I brought the Thomas Corbett back to Hoylake a few years ago. She is to be found on the Green at the bottom of Government Road – a restoration project in waiting. I had always hoped to restore her to join the Chapman which I have on loan at the Lifeboat Museum.