The King has awarded the Distinguished Service Medal to Coxswain Howard Primrose Cooper Knight, of the Ramsgat* life-boat, and Coxswain Edward Drake Parker, of the Margate life-boat "for gallantry and determination when ferrying troops from the beaches at Dunkirk".

Coxswain Knight and his crew took the Ramsgate life-boat across to Dunkirk on the afternoon of Thursday, joth. May, towing eight wherries manned by naval ratings and loaded with cans of fresh water for the troops. They were at work all the Thursday night, the Friday, and the Friday night, and continued until all the wherries had been destroyed. They helped to bring off about 2,800 men, and when they reached Ramsgate again on the Saturday morning they had been on service 40 hours.

Coxswain Parker and the Margate crew also set out on the Thursday afternoon and arrived at the beaches at midnight. They rescued first a party of French soldiers who waded out to the life-boat in the darkness, and by 8.30 the next morning had brought off between 500 and 600 men. The commander of a destroyer wrote to the Institution: "The manner in which the Margate life-boat crew brought off load after load of soldiers under continuous shelling,. bombing and aerial machine gun fire will be an inspiration to us all as long as we live.".