Littlehampton Lifeboatman Retires After 40 Years

A familiar figure around Littlehampton has retired after serving as a volunteer with the RNLI for 40 years. Geoff Warminger joined the crew of the Littlehampton lifeboat station in 1972, retiring as deputy launching authority in 2025.

Geoff was born in Rustington and has lived in Littlehampton since 1965, he worked in the construction industry until seven years ago. He had vast experience at sea having had several fishing boats of his own making the RNLI a natural extension of his interests. His role as a deputy launching authority entailed him being on call day and night to take requests from the coastguard to launch the lifeboats to save lives at sea.

A party was held at the Littlehampton lifeboat station for Geoff where he received a service certificate to mark his retirement and in recognition of his time with the RNLI. Also the crew, shore crew and operational volunteers presented him with gifts of there own in appreciation of all the work and friendships he has achieved over the years.

Lifeboat operations manager Nick White commented ‘It’s hard to adequately describe how much we will miss Geoff. He has always been such a significant member of our team, totally dependable, always making himself available, and known to everyone we deal with locally.’