Newcastle Lifeboat Station is situated at South Promenade, Newcastle, a seaside town in County Down, located the foot of Slieve Donard, the highest of the Mourne Mountains, overlooking the Irish Sea, in the south east corner of Northern Ireland.

Samuel Sparshott, Deputy Inspector General of Coastguard, Newcastle Lifeboat Station was established in April 1930, when the boat was relocated there.

[2][3] On 15 March 1905, 20 lives were saved from the French barque Cannebiere, in a joint effort by the Newcastle lifeboat Farnley, and the tug Flying Irishman, in a service lasting over 14 hours.

The vessel, on passage from Glasgow to New Caledonia, was sheltering from a storm in Dundrum Bay, but ran aground after dragging her anchor.

John McCausland, Master of the tug, and Coxswain Superintendent James Foland of Newcastle lifeboat, were awarded a 'Gold Medal and Diploma' by the French Government, presented in 1906 by the Lord Mayor of Belfast, Sir Daniel Dixon, 1st Baronet.

This was followed by the arrival of a 35-foot Self-righting (motor) lifeboat, L. P. and St Helen (ON 703), built in 1927, and having previously served at Eastbourne and Boulmer.

Coxswain Patrick Murphy would receive the RNLI Bronze Medal for a service on 19 January 1941, to the vessel Hoperidge.

Murphy would receive a Second-Service clasp just 9 days later, when 14 men were rescued off the vessel Sandhill, damaged by a Naval Mine.

[4][11] In 1992, the RNLI would receive an extraordinary bequest, a sum of £4 million from the estate of Mrs Eugenie Boucher, specifically to be used for the construction of new boathouses.

Initiated by Wing Cdr Mark Codgebrook, £11,000 had been raised by the personnel at the local RAF Station, and at a ceremony on 10 June 1995, Group Captain R. E. Wedge named the boat Aldergrove.

Newcastle would receive the D-class (IB1) Inshore lifeboat Eliza (D-775), funded from the bequest of Mary Olga Illingworth, in memory of her mother.

[3] From 28 October 2024, following the departure of 12-34 Freddie Cooper (ON 1193) from Aldeburgh, Newcastle, along with Douglas in the Isle of Man, will be just one of two RNLI stations still operating the Mersey-class lifeboat, and the last one using a carriage.