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Kingsdown KentKingsdown is a village immediately to the south of Deal on the English Channel coast of Kent. There is also a West Kingsdown in Kent. The Kingsdown lifeboat. The first lifeboat to be presented to the fishermen of Kingsdown RNLI was donated in 1865 by William Ferguson at a cost of 300. The new boat was delivered within five months, during which time the boatmen had acquired a site for the boathouse and duly had it built ready for the vessel. The Sabrina, as she was later named, arrived as cargo by train and drawn to the village by six horse and forty boatmen. At 33 feet in length and with a beam of 81 and weighing a mere 2 tons she was the smallest craft built for the RNLI. Having satisfactorily passed the inspection and testing of her abilities on her trial run, with Coxswain Jarvist Arnold and his crew of thirteen the Sabrina was called upon in the following month to the assistance of brig letting on water. In the words of Mr. Arnold She was succeeded in 1871 by another Sabrina, this time a self~righting craft of 36, which was on station until 1882, and was again the gift of Mr W. Furguson. The crew of that Lifeboat was as follows: Jarvist Arnold (Age 57),(Coxswain) Thomas Erridge (Age 73) Henry Drew (Age 34) Alexander Lambing (Age 41) George Erridge (Age 53) Noah Friend (Age 60) Richard Bingham (Age 63) Henry Bingham (Age 67) George Pay (Age 43) Stephen Sutton (Age 53) John Sutton (Age 64) Henry Lilly (Age 40) Richard Abbott (Age 64) Richard Hood (Age 64) George William Sutton, a Police Sergeant had rowed stroke whilst he served on the Sabrina Lifeboat and participated in several calls including that most daring and extraordinary occasion of the rescue of the crew of the Belgian Cap Lopez of Antwerp, in 1907, when she became stranded upon the South Goodwin's. According to Roger Sutton, a descendant, another relative of his, William Sutton, also served as the last Coxswain of the Kingsdown lifeboat, the Charles Hargrave, until the closure of the Kingsdown Station in 1927, when it was superseded by the Walmer Station. Kingsdown did in fact have a fifth Lifeboat, the Barbara Fleming, but although on station, having been transferred from Carnarvonshire, in 1926 with the closure of the Portdinllaen service, she was never launched in any rescue. When in the following year the Kingsdown station was closed William had the honour of sailing the lifeboat on its two mile journey to her new launch at Walmer. Also amongst the crew were often to be found John Sutton of Kingsgate, who served at the age of 64, the father of George and Johns brother Stephen Sutton, who was a Lifeboatman at the age of 53. The boatmen at Kingsdown, near Deal, once maintained a fleet of over a dozen luggers and made a living from the fishing of herring and mackerel, but were gradually replaced by the competition of the steam trawlers which could land their catches much faster. They however maintained their tradition of manning the lifeboat as long as the dwindling population of seafarers were equal to the task. Finally, the men there having given a good account of their stewardship during those long years, conceded the village had to rely upon the help of the boatmen of Deal and Walmer to form even this crew, until at last only Coxswain Sutton and the 2nd Coxn. were left of the local force of the life~saving establishment. Prior to its closure in 1927 their had been a lifeboat station at Kingsdown for sixty-one years, and over this period, commencing in 1866, four lifeboats served the station, saving 241 lives.
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