Deal is a town in Kent, England. It lies on the English Channel eight miles from Dover. It is a small fishing community situated between Dover and the Isle of Thanet. Closely associated with Deal are the villages of Kingsdown and Walmer.

The town lies at the site where Julius Caesar first arrived in Britain, and was named as one of the Cinque Ports in 1278. The town over the centuries grew to become for a while the busiest harbour in England; today it enjoys the reputation of being a quiet seaside resort, its quaint streets and houses the only reminder of its fascinating history. Its finest building is the Tudor Deal Castle, commissioned by King Henry VIII and designed with an attractive rose floor plan.

During the 19th century, Charles Dickens was to comment on the character of the East Kent boatmen, and on one of his visits to Deal he wrote:

“These are among the bravest and most skilful mariners that exists. Let a gale rise and swell into a storm, and let a sea run that might appal the stoutest heart that ever beat; let the light ships on the sands throw up a rocket in the darkness of the night; or let them hear through the angry roar the signal guns of a ship in distress, and these men spring up with activity so dauntless, so valiant and heroic, that the world cannot surpass it". ..... "For this and the recollection of their comrades, whom we have known, whom the raging sea has engulfed before their children’s eyes in such brave efforts whom the secret sand has buried, let us hold the boatmen in our love and honour, and be tender of the fame they well deserve~”

Maritime history

By the time Dickens came to Deal it had been largely forgotten how the government of 1784, under Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger (who was staying at nearby Walmer Castle), ensured that the Deal boats were all set ablaze, suspecting some of the Deal luggers of being engaged in smuggling. Pitt had awaited an opportunity that January, when the boats were all ‘hoved up’ on the beach on account of bad weather, he sent a Regiment of soldiers to smash and burnt them all. A Naval Cutter was positioned off shore to prevent any of the boatmen from escaping.

Could anything but the fact of the event itself have made matters worse for the boatmen it would have been in that their ancestors had the right, under charter, for centuries, to freely import goods in return for their services as Cinque Port men in providing what had been long recognised as the sole naval defence of the realm. These men continued to risk their lives and their boats, in the saving of the lives of shipwreck victims.

The irrepressible spirit of the Deal boatmen remained undaunted by these events throughout the Napoleonic wars with France and they continued to engage in asserting their hard-earned right to trade, referred to as smuggling at Walmer in 1784.

From these activities ready news of the events unfolding across the channel in France would reach English the shore that much more quickly and regularly, with about 400 men making a living of off Deal beach at that time. The very fact of that war only made the boatmen’s efforts more profitable, so that with the peace, the Government immediately turned a part of its Naval blockade into a coastal blockade, which lasted from 1818 to 1831.

During the First World War, Deal had two lifeboats, the Charles Dibden and the Frances Forbes Barton; William Stanton was coxswain of the latter, which was originally, in 1897, the legacy of a Miss Webster to the boatmen of Broadstairs. It is recorded as having remained at that station until 1912, when the Broadstairs RNLI station was closed, during which time it had been taken out on 77 launches and saved 115 lives, by far the most effective of the RNLI craft stationed there.

Solomon Holbourn, Coxswain of the ‘Mary White’ of Broadstairs had an aunt, Sophia who married at Folkestone in 1813 to William Stevenson. His eldest son William, became a mariner and a boatman, and married an Elizabeth Wellard in 1839 at St. Peters, Broadstairs. One of their children, born in 1848 was likewise named after his father William, but in his adult life was better known as Bill ‘Floaty’ Stevenson, and as such as a member of the ‘Frances Forbes Barton’ Lifeboat crew.

The North Deal lifeboat.

The Charles Dibden of 1907~31 saved 443 lives at sea. During the service of R. Roberts as Coxswain, the Deal lifeboatmen included F. Roberts, ‘Bonny’ Will Adams, Henry and William Marsh, (the latter a Deal pilot), F Hanner (2nd Coxswain), and Henry Holbourn, nephew of Henry Marsh.

The Kingsdown lifeboat.

The first lifeboat to be presented to the fishermen of Kingsdown RNLI was donated in 1865 by William Ferguson at a cost of £300. The new boat was delivered within five months, during which time the boatmen had acquired a site for the boathouse and duly had it built ready for the vessel. The Sabrina, as she was later named, arrived as cargo by train and drawn to the village by six horse and forty boatmen. At 33 feet in length and with a beam of 8’1” and weighing a mere 2½ tons she was the smallest craft built for the RNLI. Having satisfactorily passed the inspection and testing of her abilities on her trial run, with Coxswain Jarvist Arnold and his crew of thirteen the Sabrina was called upon in the following month to the assistance of brig letting on water. In the words of Mr. Arnold “She was succeeded in 1871 by another Sabrina, this time a self~righting craft of 36’, which was on station until 1882, and was again the gift of Mr W. Furguson. The crew of that Lifeboat was as follows:

Jarvist Arnold (Age 57),(Coxswain) Thomas Erridge (Age 73) Henry Drew (Age 34) Alexander Lambing (Age 41) George Erridge (Age 53) Noah Friend (Age 60) Richard Bingham (Age 63) Henry Bingham (Age 67) George Pay (Age 43) Stephen Sutton (Age 53) John Sutton (Age 64) Henry Lilly (Age 40) Richard Abbott (Age 64) Richard Hood (Age 64)”

George William Sutton, a Police Sergeant had rowed stroke whilst he served on the ‘Sabrina’ Lifeboat and participated in several calls including that most daring and extraordinary occasion of the rescue of the crew of the Belgian ‘Cap Lopez’ of Antwerp, in 1907, when she became stranded upon the South Goodwin's.

According to Roger Sutton, a descendant, another relative of his, William Sutton, also served as the last Coxswain of the Kingsdown lifeboat, the Charles Hargrave, until the closure of the Kingsdown Station in 1927, when it was superseded by the Walmer Station.

Kingsdown did in fact have a fifth Lifeboat, the Barbara Fleming, but although on station, having been transferred from Carnarvonshire, in 1926 with the closure of the Portdinllaen service, she was never launched in any rescue.

When in the following year the Kingsdown station was closed William had the honour of sailing the lifeboat on its two mile journey to her new launch at Walmer. Also amongst the crew were often to be found John Sutton of Kingsgate, who served at the age of 64, the father of George and John’s brother Stephen Sutton, who was a Lifeboatman at the age of 53.

The boatmen at Kingsdown, near Deal, once maintained a fleet of over a dozen luggers and made a living from the fishing of herring and mackerel, but were gradually replaced by the competition of the steam trawlers which could land their catches much faster. They however maintained their tradition of manning the lifeboat as long as the dwindling population of seafarers were equal to the task.

Finally, the men there having given a good account of their stewardship during those long years, conceded the village had to rely upon the help of the boatmen of Deal and Walmer to form even this crew, until at last only Coxswain Sutton and the 2nd Cox’n. were left of the local force of the life~saving establishment. Prior to its closure in 1927 their had been a lifeboat station at Kingsdown for sixty-one years, and over this period, commencing in 1866, four lifeboats served the station, saving 241 lives.