Walking on the Wight: ‘Joey’s Walk’ – Saturday 5th October 2024
Martin Woodward first moved to the Isle of Wight as a young boy and it has been his home ever since. As a young teenager obsessed with boats and the sea, he joined the Bembridge RNLI lifeboat service, soon becoming a crew member and eventually Coxswain. Alongside his diving jobs, Martin spent well over 35 years with the RNLI.
Together with Caroline Peel, President of the Bembridge Guild and Vice Chair of the RNLI Isle of Wight Board, they have organised ‘Joey’s Walk’ a special tribute ramble in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the founding of the RNLI. Read on to find out more…
Having been born and brought up in Bembridge, the RNLI has always been a pivotal part of my life. As a child we would hear the maroons go off from what was Weaver’s Yard, one for a not too serious shout, to for a Pan Pan and three for all hands to the boat. We would then leap onto our bicycles to watch the boat go out.
2024 is the Bicentenary of the RNLI and all stations around the UK and Ireland are commemorating this milestone. A scroll has been touring every station and signed by representatives of each crew.
Bembridge has been a lifeboat village for over 150 years and the Attrill family have been a significant part of the lifeboat community, in an unbroken line, through 6 generations. Edmund Charles ‘Joey’ Attrill was born in March 1844, he was in the rescue boat that saved the crew of the Egbert which grounded on Bembridge Ledge in 1867. He became a key crew member of the new lifeboat City of Worcester, becoming second coxswain and then Coxswain in 1878. He died in March 1931 at the age of 87 having served in the Bembridge boat for 38 years.
In March 1888 the Sirenia ran aground on Atherfield Ledge at the ‘Back of the Wight’. The two local lifeboats from Brook and Brighstone had been having a desperate struggle to save the crew in very difficult sea conditions – remember these boats were powered by oars. They made two successful trips to the ship, rescuing 17 people, but the lifeboats had been capsized or washed ashore in the surf several times and three crew members and two passengers from the shop had drowned.
Somehow the news of the disaster reached Joey Attrill in Bembridge and he decided to go and assist. He and his 2ndCoxswain, James Baker, set off tin their oilskins and sea boots to walk the 15 or so miles to Atherfield. When they reached Atherfield they found the exhausted and shocked remains of the crew and only one serviceable lifeboat. The crew had been at see for 15 hours.
William ‘Rufus’ Cotton of the Brighstone crew took command, the Coxswain and 2nd Coxswain had been lost at sea, and with the help of Joey and James’ assistance they reached the wreck and saved the last 13 members of the crew from the Sirenia.
This walk is through particularly attractive parts of the Island and a lunch stop is planned at the Chequers Inn, Rookley. Included are parts of the Worsley Trail and Shepherds trail.
My Uncle took this photograph in 1935 when on the crew of the boat as they went out to assist an Imperial Airways Flying Boat that had been trapped in the fog.
The crew kit has changed somewhat since then, and the crew now receive formal training. In the earlier days those who turned up were often recruited.
