Photo: Andy Li · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

Eastbourne RNLI Museum

Free RNLI museum in the 1898 William Terriss Memorial Boathouse on the Eastbourne seafront, telling the story of local lifeboating.

Opening hoursFree admission

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About the museum

The museum is housed in the William Terriss Memorial Boathouse, built in 1898 with money from a Daily Telegraph appeal in memory of the actor William Terriss, who was murdered in London the year before. It served as the second lifeboat house at Eastbourne until the lifeboat James Stevens No 6 was withdrawn in 1924. The boat then stayed on site as an exhibition lifeboat until 1935.

In 1937 the boathouse became the first permanent lifeboat museum in the country. Lifeboats have been stationed at Eastbourne since 1822, two years before the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) itself was founded, and the RNLI took over the station in 1853. The all-weather lifeboat station moved to Sovereign Harbour in 1993, so the museum is now a historic site rather than a working station.

The displays cover more than 200 years of lifesaving at Eastbourne, including medal-winning rescues, the town's lifeboat taking part in the evacuation of troops from Dunkirk in 1940, and the development of search and rescue technology. The museum shares the building with an RNLI shop, and opening depends on volunteers.

Highlights

1898 William Terriss Memorial Boathouse
Eastbourne lifeboat history since 1822
Medal-winning rescues
Dunkirk evacuation story
Free entry

Permanent exhibition

Eastbourne lifeboat history – Exhibits on over 200 years of lifesaving at Eastbourne, including award-winning rescues, the Dunkirk evacuation and the development of search and rescue technology.

Founded: 1937
Operated by: Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI)