A NORTHUMBERLAND lifeboat team has held a naming ceremony for its newest vessel.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution team at Amble gathered on Saturday to officially name its most recent addition, a £31,000 D class lifeboat.

The vessel was named Mildred Holcroft in memory of the late wife of Yorkshireman John Holcroft, whose legacy funded it.

Mr Holcroft’s sister Sheila Brown named the lifeboat by pouring champagne over its bow while her husband Wilfred formally handed Mildred Holcroft over into the care of the RNLI. Mr Holcroft, who died in 2005, was originally from Goole, East Yorkshire but latterly lived in Ripon, North Yorkshire.

He was a marine engineer in the Merchant Navy and became a governor of the RNLI, of which he was a long-term supporter.

The lifeboat began service at the Amble station last summer in place of its former D class, Rosemary Palmer, which had reached the end of its operational life.

The Mildred Holcroft is already credited with helping save four lives, having played a part in the rescues of the crew of a boat which became stranded on rocks at Boulmer, a yacht in a similar predicament at Hauxley, and a youth who had to be plucked from Warkworth harbour.

Volunteers and supporters gathered at the weekend ceremony alongside the chief executive of the RNLI Paul Boissier and his wife, who is originally from nearby Warkworth.

Amble RNLI lifeboat operations manager Rodney Burge, said: “It was very successful.

It was well attended and went smoothly really. Everything went fine. We are so grateful to Mr Holcroft for the very generous legacy to the RNLI which provided our new lifeboat.

“Legacies like Mr Holcroft’s are vital to our charity. Six out of 10 lifeboat launches are only possible because of legacies so without them, our volunteer lifeboatmen and women just wouldn’t be able to carry on doing what they do so well, saving lives at sea.”

Mrs Brown said: “John would have been delighted to know his request came to fruition in this way and the thought of lives saved because of his support is a happy outcome of his bequest.”