[3] Foresters Centenary was fitted with a single 35 horsepower Weyburn AE6 six cylinder petrol engine which was housed in its own watertight compartment.

Foresters Centenary was on station at Sheringham for twenty five years from 1936 until she was sold to R. C. Baker of Wells-next-the-Sea on 18 September 1961.

Her first accredited lifesaving launch took place on 19 August[3] when an exhausted local fisherman was towed to safety after he had struggled to control his boat in rough seas.

Given the location of the Sheringham station on the North Norfolk coast, the lifeboat and her crew found themselves in considerable demand during the Second World War.

During the War the lifeboat was launched fifty six times, of which thirty four involved aircraft and their crews, of which sixteen have been accredited as life saves.

[5] The incident occurred on 29 January 1940[3] when Foresters Centenary was launched at 9:15 am into rough seas in an easterly gale.

The Sheringham boat was recalled by the coastguard who now had conformation that the lifeboat had been swept across to the Lincolnshire coast where it had been driven ashore, drowning all but one of the crew.

On 19 February 1940 the coaster Boston Trader of Great Yarmouth was attacked and set on fire by German aircraft.

The lifeboat was launched on 21 October[6] to assist a ditched British bomber close to Blakeney Point.

On 29 October 1941 the lifeboat was launched under very difficult conditions to a steamship in difficulty five miles west of Sheringham.

The Canadian ship Eaglescliffe Hall[7] appeared to be drifting and the Foresters Centenary rescued 15 men from her.

304 Polish Bomber Squadron which had ditched in the sea two miles north-east of the town after being damaged by flak during a raid over Hamburg.

[13] The Foresters Centenary's last wartime service took place on 16 August 1945,[14][3] to go to the assistance of one of the town's former lifeboats Henry Ramey Upcher.

[3] The former private lifeboat had gone to sea with sixty passengers to take part in the town's regatta to celebrate Victory over Japan Day.

The Foresters Centenary was launched and took the Henry Ramey Upcher in tow, beaching her back in Sheringham.

[14] Following the war the Foresters Centenary's first peacetime service was on 9 December 1945 when she went to the assistance of the steamship Lady Sophia.

On 14 September she launched to assist the United States Type T2 oil tanker SS El Morro[15] which had run aground on Sheringham Shoal.

The decade of the 1950s kept the Foresters Centenary busy as coastal maritime traffic began to return to pre-war levels.

On 31 December 1950 the lifeboat was launched to the Dutch motor vessel Johanne TeVelde which had been showing distress signals following engine trouble and had become lost in fog.

Another significant service took place on 19 May 1955 which involved the rescue of the crew members of the Turkish steam ship Zor[16] of Istanbul.

Initially the Wells lifeboat RNLB Cecil Paine rescued several of the crew, but four men decided to stay aboard to try to save the vessel.

A northerly gale was blowing in full force and Coxswain West asked the captain to abandon ship but he refused.

The SS Wimbledon radioed the coastguard to report that her pumps could not control the rising water level and that she planned to beach at Blakeney.

[19] With this turn of events the Foresters Centenary was placed on standby but almost immediately the mate of the Wimbledon reported that her master had been washed overboard.

The chief officer who had assumed command decided not to beach the ship but to anchor in the lee at Blakeney outfalls.

Foresters Centenary transferred eight of the crew to the nearby Blythe, as the coxswain did not wish to risk their lives in subsequent approaches to the stricken ship that she would undoubtedly have to make.

In the meantime a helicopter from RAF Horsham St Faith had landed a doctor aboard the Eleanor Brook to attend to the master.

The Wells lifeboat arrived and collected the doctor and the dead master, re-fuelled the Foresters Centenary, and then returned to her station.

Coxswain West steered the Foresters Centenary alongside the ship and ropes were attached which allowed two more of the crew to be rescued, one of whom had sustained a head injury.

One of these rescues on 16 April was to a local fishing boat called Windsor Rose which was trying to return home in worsening weather conditions.