The John Wesley Hillard IV cost £89,000 and is Scarborough lifeboat station’s fourth D class lifeboat paid for by Gay and Peter Hartley’s Hillards Charitable Trust.

The trust is linked to the former Hillards family supermarket chain which traded across the North of England, including a store in Scarborough, from 1885 to 1987, when it was bought out by Tesco.

The charitable trust was set up by the Hartleys in 1988, using part of their share of the sale proceeds.

Scarborough RNLI’s chairman, Colin Woodhead, said: “The Hartley family has shown amazing support for Scarborough RNLI over the years. This latest act of generosity means we have the most advanced boats available to continue to save lives at sea.”

In 2016, the foundation stone of the town’s new lifeboat station was laid by Peter Hartley’s grandson Oscar Hartley on behalf of his father Simon, who bid for the opportunity to dress and lay the year-stone in The Yorkshire Post’s Christmas 2014 appeal.

Lifeboat chaplain Rev Richard Walker officiated at the lifeboat’s dedication service which was attended by members of the Hartley family, the former national RNLI chairman, Charles Hunter-Pease, the current deputy chairwoman, Janet Cooper, Scarborough’s mayor Eric Broadbent and crew members and local station officials.

After the ceremony on Saturday, four members of the inshore lifeboat crew took the new vessel out in the South Bay to demonstrate what it is capable of. Two of the members jumped overboard to show how a casualty would be rescued.

Scarborough lifeboats: New £90,000 lifeboat launched at dedication ceremony