[4] On 3 February 1916 the SS Empress Queen became stranded in thick fog and foul weather on the Ring Rocks, off the Foreland at the eastern extremity of the Isle of Wight.

[4][9] On the morning of 28 August 1919, there was heavy rain in a strong gale, and an American ship called the USS Wakulla (ID-3147) had been driven onto a shoal at West Wittering.

[9] By 1922 the RNLI had determined that Bembridge's location made it a prime candidate for a new motor lifeboat, requiring the construction of a new boathouse with a concrete pier and a steel launching slipway.

A single-screw self-righting motor lifeboat, the Langham (ON 676), was funded by a legacy and was named and launched by a member of the donor's family.

[11][12] The 1922 improvements made Bembridge the most state-of-the-art station in the country and gave the crew the capability to be at sea in just 14 minutes.

On 8 August 1941, Jesse Lumb was launched to search for an aircraft reported to be down 10 miles south of Bembridge station.

After a fruitless search for the aircraft, the lifeboat came across Royal Air Force Marine Branch high speed launch HSL 116 disabled and flying a distress signal.

In 1964 the RNLI established an inshore lifeboat service at Bembridge, utilising the 1867 boathouse to house the D-class ILB.

The boathouse was enlarged to accommodate a new lifeboat, the Solent-class Jack Shayler and the Lees (ON 1009) which served on station from 1970 until 1978.

[18] In 1987 the station was allocated a new Tyne-class lifeboat, Max Aitken III (ON 1126), and the boathouse was again altered to accommodate the bigger boat.

[4] In 2009 a new Tamar-class lifeboat was allocated to the station, again requiring a major redevelopment of the offshore boathouse, projected to cost £10 million.

The portion of the structure dating back to the original 19th century boathouse were kept, whilst the newer building was carefully constructed around it.