This year saw the 70th anniversary of the mass evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk during the Second World War. On 30 May 1940, the RNLI received a call from the UK Ministry of Shipping, asking for as many lifeboats as possible to be sent to Dover at once.

Lifeboats from 18 stations in south and east England, from Gorleston in Norfolk to Poole in Dorset, sailed for Dover, where they were commandeered by the Royal Navy to form part of the flotilla of ‘Little Ships’ that rescued over 338,000 people from the beaches.

Margate and Ramsgate lifeboats, however, had been asked to launch earlier and head straight for Dunkirk, meaning that it was the volunteer lifeboat crew themselves who were under Luftwaffe fire as they rescued more than 3,000 men.