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Her Majesty's Coastguard (HMCG) is a section of the United Kingdom
Maritime and Coastguard Agency responsible for the initiation and
co-ordination of all civilian maritime search and rescue (SAR) within
the UK Maritime Search and Rescue Region. This includes the
mobilisation, organisation and tasking of adequate resources to respond
to persons either in distress at sea, or to persons at risk of injury or
death on the cliffs or shoreline of the United Kingdom. The chief
executive of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency is Sir Alan Massey.
Operational control of the service is the responsibility of the Chief
Coastguard. Her Majesty's Coastguard is not a military force, and
coastal defence is the responsibility of the Royal Navy. However, the
organisation is a uniformed service.
In 1809 the Preventative
Water Guard was established, which may be regarded as the immediate
ancestor of HM Coastguard. Its primary objective was to prevent
smuggling, but it was also responsible for giving assistance to
shipwrecks. For this reason, each Water Guard station was issued with
Manby's Mortar (the mortar fired a shot with a line attached from the
shore to the wrecked ship and was used for many years). In 1821 a
committee of enquiry recommended that responsibility for the
Preventative Water Guard should be transferred from HM Treasury to the
Board of Customs. The Board of Custom and the Board of Excise each had
their own long-established preventative forces: shore-based Riding
Officers and sea-going Revenue Cruisers. The committee recommended the
consolidation of these various related services. The Treasury agreed,
and in a Minute dated 15 January 1822 directed that they be placed under
the authority of the Board of Customs and named the Coast Guard.
The new Coast Guard inherited a number of shore stations and watch
houses from its predecessor bodies as well as several coastal vessels,
and these provided bases for its operations over the following years. In
1829 the first Coast Guard instructions were published, dealing mainly
with discipline and the prevention of smuggling; they also stipulated
that when a wreck took place the Coast Guard was responsible for taking
all possible action to save lives, taking charge of the vessel and
protecting property. In 1831, the Coast Guard took over duties from the
Coast Blockade for the Suppression of Smuggling (which had been run by
the Admiralty from a string of Martello Towers on the Kent and Sussex
coast); this finally gave it authority over the whole of the UK
coastline.
In the 1850s, with smuggling on the wane, oversight of
the Coast Guard was transferred from the Board of Customs to the
Admiralty. In the decades that followed, the Coast Guard (or Coastguard,
as it came to be called) began to function more like an auxiliary Naval
service, a recruitment ground for future naval personnel (see below).
Responsibilities for revenue protection were retained, but hands-on
rescue services began to be undertaken more and more by Volunteer Life
Brigades and by the lifeboats of the RNLI, with the Coast Guard acting
in a support role.
|
NAME |
DATE & PLACE OF BIRTH |
| |
|
|
|
| Douglas(s),
George |
KEN 1798
Faversham |
1841
Broomhill SSX
1851 Pevensey SSX
1861 On pension in Bexhill
SSX (RG9/0563/53)
1871 deceased |
1841 - Wife:
C(K)atherine, 1796 Saffron Waldron ESS.
1871 - Catherine
Douglas, widow in Bexhill SSX (RG10/1034/20)
1881 - Catherine
Douglas, widow in Bexhill SSX (RG11/1031/25) |
| Douglas,
James A. |
SCT 1837
Arbroath |
1871
Langstone HAM
1881 Not found |
Wife: Mary I,
1850, Portland, DOR. Child: Alexandra, 1870, Langstone. |
| Douglas, John |
BRK 1801
Bunham |
1851
Mundesley NFK
1854 Mundesley NFK [Whites Directory]
1856
Mundesley NFK [Cravens Directory]
1881 On pension at Weston
Super Mare, SOM [RG11/2421/65] |
Unmarried in
1851, widowed by 1881. Children: Catherine, 1857, Bacton, NFK;
Mary CB, 1864, Bridport, DOR; Charles H, 1872, Weston Super
Mare, SOM. Sister Catherine Douglas, 1799, Bunham.
This man
appears in the Return to the House of Commons, 1857 |
| Douglas,
Robert |
SCT 1856 |
1891
Titchfield (Hill Head) HAM |
Wife: Ellen,
1856, Titchfield. Child: Gertrude, 1881, Southampton, HAM. |
|
Douglas, William
Bloomfield |
ENG 1823 |
1851
Fraserburgh ABD |
Wife: Ellen,
1830, ENG. Child: Harriet Willas, 1850, Fraserburgh, ABD. |
| Douglas(s),
Edward R. |
DEV 1829
Stonehouse (Plymouth) |
1861
Bishopstone SSX |
Douglas(s)
was widowed by 1861. Child: James E, 1858, Hardway (Gosport),
HAM. Sister: Mary M Douglass, 1838, Sheerness, KEN. |
Appointments
2 August 1853
Lieutenant
William Grant Douglas
(1846), from the Coast Guard service to the Odin, 16, paddle-wheel steam
frigate at Portsmouth. Served at Crimea.
29 December 1853
Lieutenant Stephen Francis
Douglas (1845), from the Coast Guard, to the Euryalus, 50, screw
steam-frigate at Chatham.
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