Lady launcher passes away It is with sadness that the Lifeboat reports the passing away of Dungeness ‘lady launcher’ Doris Tart (pictured above, front) on 30 April at Ashford’s William Harvey Hospital, aged 85.

Doris lived for most of her life in a fi sherman’s cottage close to the present lifeboat station. The constantly moving shingle at Dungeness often made lifeboat launch and recovery diffi cult. Before a tractor was sent to the station in 1979, the Tart and Oiller families formed the backbone of a group of women who launched the lifeboat as most of the local men were on the crew.

Doris served the RNLI as a launcher for 44 years and was awarded a Gold Badge on her retirement. Doris’s mother-in-law Ellen and her aunt, Madge, were both awarded the RNLI’s Gold Badge in 1954 for helping launch the lifeboat every time it put to sea for more than 50 years. Doris’s father, Douglas Oiller, was Coxswain from 1916 to 1947 and received a Bronze Medal for Gallantry, while her grandfather, cousin and husband all received gallantry awards as crew members.

When Doris had to move out of her home due to poor health she gave her collection of lifeboat artefacts and awards to the lifeboat gallery at the Historic Dockyard in Chatham. She was proud to view the resulting exhibition when it opened in June 2006..