Porthdinllaen Lifeboat

The importance of the RNLI to a coastal community can be seen in this footage of the launch of the new Porthdinllaen lifeboat on 12/8/1949. The 'Charles Henry Ashley', in use until 1979, was launched 151 times and saved the lives of 89 persons. The first person seen addressing the crowd – leading the pre-launch hymn singing, it seems – is Thomas Nefyn Williams [Tom Nefyn – 1895-1958], a quarryman who became a charismatic Methodist preacher.

This Watson-class lifeboat was purchased using a generous legacy from Charles Carr Ashley (d.1906) who had moved from Kingston-upon-Thames in Surrey to Menton, France. The event was filmed by the Nefyn pharmacist, Robert J Jones [known as Robin]. He was the uncle of John Glyn Jones, from Nefyn, whose parents ran a general store in the village after his father, Evan Williams Jones, a ship's captain, had retired from the sea. J G Jones worked as a GP in Brynsiencyn and inherited his uncle's film-making equipment, continuing the filming of community and family life until the 1970s. Married to Dr Mair Humphreys from Denbigh, he had two daughters – Annes Glynn and Marred Glynn Jones, both of whom are writers.