In three years of war the life-boat service has not gone undamaged by enemy action. Of nineteen of its life-boats which took part in the evacuation of the B.E.F. from Dunkirk in May and June, 1940, one, the Hythe boat, never returned, and the other eighteen were all damaged. A reserve life-boat on temporary duty at Guernsey and the Jersey life-boat both fell into enemy hands when the Channel Islands were occupied by German troops in June and July, 1940.

The Tynemouth life-boat and boat-house were completely destroyed in an air-raid in 1941. The Institution's head office was damaged in an air-raid in 1940, and again in 1941. Its depot was damaged in an air-raid in 1940, and several boat-houses and other buildings have also suffered damage from air-raids. Considerable additional damage was done to the Institution's property by an air-raid in 1942.

The total value of the property destroyed or damaged is over £53,°°°- The Institution's boats cannot be covered by any government insurance scheme, so that the loss and damage of the boats at Dunkirk, in the Channel Islands and at Tynemouth, fall upon the Institution, but the other property damaged - just half the total - was insured..