Mary Stanford Lifeboat

92 years ago today on 15th November 1928, at 6.45 am the Rye Lifeboat the Mary Stanford with her crew of 17 was launched from its lifeboat house at Rye Harbour into a south-westerly gale with winds in excess of 80 miles per hour raging in the English Channel to save a stricken vessel – not one of these brave Rye Harbour men ever returned. She was capsized on her return journey at about 10:30 am by a giant wave just 1½ miles from home. It had been a fruitless mission to save the crew of a vessel who had already been saved by another. RNLI Rye Harbour Lifeboat Station.
Lost were:
Herbert Head, 47 (Coxwain)
James Head, 19
John Head, 17
Joseph Stonham, 43 (Second Coxwain)
Henry Cutting, 39 (Bowman)
Albert Cutting, 26
Robert Cutting, 28
Walter Igglesden, 38
Charles Southerden, 22
Charles Pope, 28
Alex Pope, 23
Morris Downey, 23
Arthur Downey, 25
Leslie Clark, 24
William Clark, 27
Albert Smith, 44
Robert Pope.
This is the biggest loss of life from a single lifeboat in the history of the RNLI, and the Grade II Listed boathouse remains one of the most important buildings in the history of Rye Harbour.

Further reading: http://marystanford.co.uk/ and the book The Mary Stanford Disaster © Geoff Hutchinson 1993 from which parts of this story and the two photographs are used. Also see https://rnli.org/news-and-media/2020/november/13/remembering-sacrifice-and-courage-at-rnli-rye-harbour