In 1832 the coastguard Kenneth McCulloch was awarded the silver medal for saving the three crew of the sloop Vine when it was wrecked at Elie harbour on the 6 March that year.

The Gold Medal bar was awarded to Lt Henry Randall and a Silver Lifeboat to Kenneth McCulloch for rescuing the seven crew of the schooner Wanderer when it was wrecked at Elie in a storm in the preceding year.

Silver medals were also awarded to two other coastguards, A Murray and J Mason, for saving the five crew of the schooner John when it got into trouble during bad weather in December 1833.

It was named The Doctors in a ceremony by Princess Alice in memory of the family of Dr Nora Allan who had gifted the cost of the lifeboat.

The Doctors was withdrawn from the station after 26 years and was replaced by a Mersey-class lifeboat in 1991 – at this time the slipway was refurbished and the boathouse extended and modernised.

MV Princess had run onto rocks near Crail in the early hours and was breaking up in a force 5 winds, heavy rain and a three-metre swell.