[4] Early on the morning of 29 December 1929, Lord Southborough attempted to assist a German boat, the Hermine, which had run aground in a storm.

[5] On 30 May 1940, the Lord Southborough was launched to assist in the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk in France.

[9] The two lifeboats ferried soldiers from the beach to larger ships waiting off-shore in deeper water to evacuate them back to England.

The Commanding Officer of the destroyer, Lieutenant Commander E. G. Roper, said of Lord Southborough’s crew:[6][11] On behalf of every officer and man on this ship, I should like to express to you our unbound admiration for the magnificent behaviour of the crew of the lifeboat Lord Southborough….

On 3 September 1940[13] Lord Southborough was sent out to search for a missing Spitfire pilot who had been shot down in an air-to-air engagement with a Luftwaffe Messerschmitt 109.

[13] In the afternoon of 15 November 1940, the Lord Southborough launched to assist the Royal Navy Tug HMS Guardsman after she struck a mine off North Foreland headland and exploded.

[14] The Guardsman had sunk by the time Lord Southborough arrived,[15] but the lifeboat was able to rescue seven of the nine Royal Navy personnel from the wreckage.

[5] At 5:45pm in the early evening of 10 April 1941[2] Lord Southborough was launched to search for a crashed Royal Air Force Blenheim bomber, which had been reported as having made a forced landing on Margate Sands 3 miles off shore after returning from an attack on Borkum, during which it had been damaged by anti-aircraft defensive fire.