Name Guide of Dunkirk

Built by Rowhedge Ironworks, Essex, as ON 826, a 35ft 6 Self Righter designed for launching from a beach and fitted with a single Weyburn AE 6 35hp petrol engine. She was paid for by the Girl Guides Association, and was therefore due to be named GIRL GUIDE. 

However, immediately after her launch on 1st June 1940 and still unnamed and undelivered to the RNLI, she sailed straight for Dunkirk with a crew from Walton-on-the-Naze and Frinton-on-Sea, Essex.  On her first trip she ferried many soldiers from the beaches out to larger waiting ships until she was badly damaged by machine gun fire and got a rope wrapped around the propeller.  After being towed back to England stern first, she was repaired and went straight back to Dunkirk where she was heavily damaged again by shell fire. The efforts of this boat and her crew saved countless lives under very heavy enemy fire.

From 1941 until the lifeboat station closed in 1963, she was stationed at Cadgwith on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall.  Following her efforts at Dunkirk, the lifeboat was renamed GUIDE OF DUNKIRK in 1947.

When the station closed, she was sold into private ownership. Her first - and only private - owner was John Moor, who, being a local man himself, remembered the day she arrived, and had relatives who were among her crew.  Moor changed her name to GIRL GUIDE but did not make any structural alterations.  She was based for many decades at Mevagissey as a workboat and was a tourist attraction during the summer season.  After her owner's death, she was inherited by his family. 

As of 2025, and renamed GUIDE OF DUNKIRK once more, the lifeboat has been laid up ashore for some years, but is in remarkably good condition and very complete with many original fittings and fixtures.  She still has her complete rig, original compass and steering wheel along with many bronze fittings that have been carefully retained. 

Update, April 2025: Vessel for sale.