Teddington Lifeboat Station
Teddington Lifeboat Station is located on the north bank of the River Thames at Fairmile House, on Twickenham Road in Teddington, next to Teddington Lock in West London.
It is one of four lifeboat stations established on the Thames in 2002, and is operated by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. It is notable for being one of the first stations to cover a stretch of river, rather than estuarial waters or the sea. Teddington Lock is the highest tidal point on the Thames, and the lifeboat station is situated to enable launch of the lifeboats both upstream and downstream of the lock.
The station currently operates two Inshore lifeboats, Peter Saw, on station since 2015, and Alderman Penny Shelton, on station since 2023.
History
Following the collision in 1989 between the Marchioness and the dredger Bowbelle that resulted in the loss of 51 lives, the "Thames Safety Inquiry" recommended a centrally coordinated search and rescue presence on the Thames. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency was chosen to coordinate the services that already existed on the Thames. Since they already had operational duties, they approached the RNLI and asked if they could provide a rescue service.The RNLI recommended the creation of four lifeboat stations on the Thames to cover the tidal area between Teddington and the Channel, with locations approved at Teddington,, and.
On 1 January 2002 Teddington lifeboat station became fully operational. It was thought that the lifeboat stations on the Thames would have to deal with approximately 50 call-outs per year. However, in the first year of operation, there were over 800 call-outs. In fact, the Thames lifeboat stations accounted for 10% of the total number of call-outs, or "shouts", that the RNLI responded to.
Although Teddington is not the busiest Thames station it was quickly realised that its presence should extend further upstream to Molesey Lock, thereby including Kingston upon Thames within its operational area. In order to deal with this additional area, and to ensure operational effectiveness above and below Teddington Lock, Teddington is equipped with two lifeboats and, unlike the other Thames stations, is run on a purely voluntary basis.
Crew
There are approximately 30 voluntary crew members, including engineers, bankers and designers, few members having any professional seafaring experience. They train every week in order to achieve the high standards of competence and safety expected of the RNLI.In the event of a call-out, every crew member's pager is simultaneously activated by the London Coastguard. Twenty-four hours a day, 365 days of the year, the crew aim to launch one or both boats, depending on the nature of the incident, within six minutes of the call to the Coastguard. Their operational target is to be on scene within 15 minutes of the original call.