Always ready: a South Tyneside town’s lifesaving legacy
Coastal town celebrates 160 years of lifesaving heritage. Tony Henderson reports
A lifesaving organisation based at the mouth of the Tyne in one of the oldest listed all-wooden Victorian buildings in Britain is about to celebrate its 160th anniversary.
The South Shields Volunteer Life Brigade was formally founded on January 30 1866.
“Its motto ‘Always Ready’ sums up the rich maritime history and heritage of South Tyneside,” said brigade honorary secretary Tom Fennelly.
“The North East coast, and in particular the seafaring communities around the mouth of the River Tyne, has a proud record of lifesaving since the earliest days of organised coast rescue services and is justifiably renowned as the cradle of coast rescue invention and pioneering development.”
The world’s first purpose-designed lifeboat, the ‘Original’, built by Henry Greathead, was stationed at South Shields in 1789 and manned by Tyne Pilots.
Together with the second Greathead lifeboat, ‘Northumberland’, stationed at North Shields in 1798, the Tyne Lifeboat Society predated the establishment of the RNLI in 1824 by 35 years.
Once, more than 500 such organisations served around the coast of Britain. Today only three remain – Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade, the first to be formed in December 1864, followed by South Shields Volunteer Life Brigade in January 1866 and Sunderland Volunteer Life Brigade 10 years later.
The South Shields brigade story begins with the wreck of the Aberdeen steamer Stanley on November 24 1864.
Watchers stood helpless as 25 passengers and crew perished when a storm drove the ship on to the treacherous Black Middens in the Tyne rivermouth.
Two lifeboatmen from Tynemouth’s first RNLI lifeboat, ‘Constance’, were also drowned during rescue attempts.
This disaster highlighted the need for a shore-based rescue organisation to work with the full-time Coastguard, who at that time were the only people trained in the use of rocket rescue equipment.
In December 1865 a group met in the Mechanics Institute at South Shields to discuss the establishment of a Volunteer Life Brigade similar to that formed at Tynemouth.
It was agreed that a brigade should be formed and the Town Clerk, Mr T. Salmon, led a deputation to meet the Tyne pilots, who agreed to apply to the Board of Trade.
The Mayor of South Shields, Alderman Thomas Moffett, called a public meeting in the Old Town Hall in the Market Place and 140 men were enrolled.
A copy of the notice still hangs in the brigade’s wooden Watch House.
The Board of Trade formally accepted the services of South Shields Volunteer Life Brigade on January 30 1866.
Following the lifesaving tradition of the earlier Tyne Lifeboat Society, the brigade adopted the South Shields town motto “Always Ready”, which has continued to be the motto of South Tyneside Council since 1974.
The brigade was the first such organisation in the world to use the breeches buoy to save life from shipwreck.
On April 2, 1866 the schooner Tenterden of Sunderland was wrecked on the South Pier, which was still under construction at the time.
Seven people, including a woman and child, were rescued from the stricken vessel.
Since then the brigade has maintained a record of 160 years of continuous lifesaving service.
In 2025 it responded to 157 emergency callouts to assist HM Coastguard and in the previous year there was a record 268 lifesaving incidents.
“Every day since January 30 1866, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, South Shields Volunteer Life Brigade has stood ready to help those in peril, working with the RNLI lifeboats and other emergency services,” said Mr Fennelly.
The Watch House still serves as the everyday operations centre for the brigade and provides a local museum dedicated to its past, housing a collection of historic equipment, artefacts and photographs.