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Original Text (Annotation: epw024880 / 2003411)
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The is Southend's just-arrived new RNLI LIfeboat "Greater London, (Civil Service No3)" - the FIRST motor Lifeboat at the Southend Station. The Pierhead Lifeboat House was not built until 1935 with it's steep slipway, at a cost of nearly £16,000. This lifeboat was one of 19 RNLI Boats that took part in the Dunkirk Evacuation; and was peremptorily-commandeered by the Royal Navy's Captain Jukes-Hughes at Dover, and sent across with16 other commandeered Lifeboats. The Greater London survived Dunkirk evacuation service with a crew who'd never seen the vessel before; and was back on Station by June 7th, 1940. She survived WW2 and was not retired until 1955. For anyone who wants to know more about the 36 "little ships" from the 7 miles of Southend area waterfront - from Canvey ["Monarch" and "Shamrock" went] to Shoebury [the SMNCo "Duchess of York" went]- that took part in the work of the inshore flotilla, ferrying soldiers from the evacuation beaches out to ship in deeper water, - search online for the 180-page non-fiction Southend local-History Paper -"To rescue Our Soldiers". . '
