Port Isaac remembers lifeboat legend Dennis Knight

The flagpole outside the lifeboat station on Middle Street does not often fly at half-mast. Right now, it does, for a man who spent more than a decade putting himself between the village and the sea.

Eleven years, 49 lives saved

Port Isaac RNLI has confirmed the death of Dennis Brian Knight, a former member of the station’s inshore lifeboat crew. Dennis served for 11 years with the Port Isaac lifeboat, a period during which the crew he was part of helped save 49 lives from shipwreck.

A framed certificate of service presented to Dennis by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution records the same figures: eleven years with the Port Isaac Inshore Lifeboat crew, and 49 lives rescued during that time. The document, dated August 1978, notes that the RNLI’s Committee of Management chose to place the achievement formally on record.

📷Credit: Port Isaac RNLI

More than the lifeboat

Dennis’s voluntary service to Port Isaac did not stop with the lifeboat. He also spent many years as a valued member of the village’s Cliff Rescue Team, adding a second string of rescue work alongside his time with the crew.

A Cornish character

Port Isaac RNLI says everyone who knew Dennis will have a tale to tell, and that those who knew him best will have the funniest ones. He was, by the station’s own description, a real character, and will be greatly missed by the crew and by the wider community.

The station’s flag remains lowered at Middle Street in his memory. “Fair winds and following seas, Dennis,” the RNLI said in tribute.

📷Credit: Port Isaac RNLI