The women launchers at Boulmer, Northumberland. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor? How about Butcher, Baker and Candlestick Maker? Or, in the case of the RNLI, shore helper, medic, lifeboat crew and press officer? Mention any of these jobs and you would probably think they were 'jobs for the boys'. Well, you'd be wrong! Ever since the early days of the RNLI, way back in the 1800s, women have played an important part. As a former coxswain of the Dungeness lifeboat said "I don't know where we would have been sometimes without the ladies. No credit would be too high for what they did." He was talking about the ladies who used to launch his lifeboat but he could just as well have been talking about the overall role of women in the RNLI. For these days, there is hardly an aspect of lifeboat work in which they are not involved.

THE EARLY YEARS From the early beginnings of the lifeboat service, the women who gave their support were: 1. those living on the coast, who helped to launch the boats and sometimes even took part in rescues from the beaches, and 2. the voluntary workers, who raised the funds and gave talks to make many more people aware of the lifeboat service.

THE LAUNCHERS There used to be many small fishing communities where most of the men were needed to crew the lifeboat, leaving only a few men and the women to launch her. Each station has its stories of courage and the following are just a few from many.

• At Holy Island the women turned out in a blinding snowstorm one January night to launch the lifeboat. 60 helpers went waist deep into the sea to get the boat afloat.

• At Runswick, the fishermen's wives used to launch the lifeboat and, when the fishing fleet was caught out in bad weather, they would help their husbands to safety. 

• Cresswell, where Margaret Armstrong helped to drag the Margaret lifeboat half a mile to the sea and then ran five miles along  the coast, waded across a storm swollen river and finally For 50 years she never missed a collapsed when she reached Newbiggin Coastguard station launch of the lifeboat, to tell the officer that the rocket apparatus was needed.

• Newbiggin where they used to say "Every man to the boat and every woman to the rope".

Cresswell, Northumberland, where at one tune women regularly helped to launch the lifeboat.

• The Boulmer women launchers awarded the Thanks inscribed on Vellum in recognition for their coma and endurance during a rescue on December 1925. In the face of a blizzard, the 61 launchers, including 35 women, dragged the lifeboat for I'A miles along a road so narrow that the wheels were continually sinkii in the ditches.

It was only because of their determination that the boat and her carriage, weighing 11 tons, got to the rescue.

They had been out in the blizzard at night for over six hours

• The end of an era Dungeness was the las station where women helped to launch the lifeboat. For many yea greased wooden planl (woods) were hauled over the shingle and laid in a line so the lifeboat could slide down to the sea, In 1978, these were replaced with a tractor and carriage. For generations the Oillers ai the Tarts lived at Dungeness and, at one time, nearly all the launchers and lifeboat crew belonged to the two families. Fishin had always been their livelihood, hi the lifeboat was their passion. Two women launchers, Miss Madge Tart her sister-in-law, Mrs Emily Tart were each awarded the RNLI's Gold Badge' 1953. In 1979 Mrs Tart's daughter, Do Tart and Mrs Joan Bates, who was m ried to the station honorary secretary, were each awarded Gold Badges in ognition of their service. Doris Tart only 15 when she helped at her first launching in 1936 and served as a si helper for 44 years. Joan Bates helped launch the lifeboat for 37 years afte first starting in 1940.

The worst launch was in 1929 when storm was so severe that a lifeboat in the stern of the lifeboat could n seen from the bow.

' Siting foatup.

It toman's ormer lenTart. ioo here jlsetodo | aught )•sked •he Jeturn tale to be aw Medal was & Darling. Nine other Silver Medals have been awarded to women, the in 1888. over one hundred years aS°; 1838 Grace Darling and her father WIB rowed through a howling gale to the pac steamer Forfarshire, which was blowr rocks off Hamburgh, Northumberland.

1847 Miss Margaret and Martha Llewei 847 Mrs Georgia Vilhelmina. .g 1856 Miss Grace Tait and Miss Ellen v IWsid fSdthose da ~ there was no radio so the nchers. cold, soaked and exhausted, d to huddle around a stove (cooker), Siting for tne return °f e lifeboat, -then lad the important job of covering the boat.

jeet the returning lifeboat the •y woods were laid across the jj and then the boat as hauled ;ip with capstan (a lotating "o which the rope is wound) here was nu electric inch in those early . It took two ours to heave the foatup.

It was never a toman's job." said ormer coxswain lenTart. "It was ioo hard. But here was no one jlsetodo it." (left to right] Mrs Emily Tart and Miss Madge Tart of Dungeness, who helped to launch the lifeboat every lime it went to sea for 50 years Harm Force aught up with oris Tart, who is now 78, and sked her what were the 'best bits' of he job. She said "Seeing the lifeboat Jeturn safeh after a successful service, , friendly chatter and all together!". Doris said the 'worst if the job were "Riding my bike in tale force winds and rain to get to the station 'Amile away!" The women launchers of Dungeness.

' May Stout Hectorson Moar.

71 M'SS Alice Bel1 Lfi Geyt.

lraPn 3UX;Brimesistersarid IWsid |fhaVghness '- to°k their "8 boat through fSd«"ed ™*MSMaria anr lace ' ites gsTHE FUNDRAISERS All round the coast, the lifeboatmen's wives were very involved in raising funds for their stations.

They were backed up by the members of ladies' lifeboat guilds in towns and villages throughout the country.

The first organised ladies' committees were formed at the end of the last century. Following the tragic loss of 27 men from the St Annes and Southport lifeboats in 1886, Sir Charles Macara, a Lancashire businessman, looked at the income of the RNLI and found that two thirds of it was provided by •;* VJ M about 100 people.

In 1891 he founded Lifeboat Saturday, the first-ever street collection and, a year later, Lady Macara organised the first Ladies Auxiliary Committee in Manchester and Salford.

"lg the Albert Cullercoats fishwife, Mrs Bella Mattison, was one of the lifeboat collectors. She was known throughout the north of England as 'Bella the Lifeboat Lady'.

Dublin Lifeboat Day 1901 These soon spread throughout the country and, in 1921, a Ladies' Lifeboat Guild was formed, which took over from the earlier organisations.

Nobody would have been able to imagine the 'great things' the ladies' guilds would achieve in years to come, for the guilds have raised millions of pounds for the RNLI. Some individual members have devoted almost their entire lives to make sure that the money to build and maintain the boats would always be there.

As well as annual flag days, these guilds started to organise coffee mornings, tea dances and many other events. The story continues to this day, although some of the fundraising ideas have become a little more adventurous with things such as sponsored parachute jumps and marathons! It would be impossible to relate all the stories of the bravery, devotion and self sacrifice that women have shown for the RNLI. Each would fill the chapter of a giant book whose beginning would surely be the words of a former coxswain at The Mumbles: "From the time the lady sold her flag or arranged her coffee morning to raise funds - that is when the rescue started and not when the maroons were fired.

Anybody who works for or supports this Institution in someway is responsible for the preservation (protection) of life at sea." Polly Donkin of Cullercoats raised large amounts of money for the RNLI.

Since those early days, the jobs that women now do in the RNLI have greatly increased. Not only do they carry out the important roles of fundraiser and shore helper but, from the 1960's onwards, the list of women's jobs includes medical advisers, lifeboat crew and press officers, to name a few. In the next issue of The Lifeboat we will meet these women pictured below, and others, to find out what they do and what makes them want to give up their time, with no thought of reward, to help the cause of saving lives at sea.

Kim Miller Fiona Ironside Miriam De Regibus.