War saviour still making history

A DUNKIRK little ship received two awards at a four-day boat celebration.

Lady Isabelle, which was built by Harry Gibbs for Lord and Lady Staines in 1930, received an award for elegance and quality of restoration at the Monaco Classic week from September 10 to 13.

The 30ft launch, built of mahogany on oak, was one of the 700 private boats used in Operation Dynamo to rescue more than 338,00 British and French soldiers in the Second World War.

It had a gunner stationed in the forward cockpit as it was towed across the Channel. The 95-year-old vessel then completed three trips, rescuing about 50 trapped soldiers from the beaches, bringing them to the safety of larger vessels.

On June 4, 1940, Lady Isabelle returned, largely unscathed, and continued her service with the Home Guard until the end of the war in 1944 patrolling the River Thames and guarding bridges
24 hours a day. In 1981, one of its 10 owners commissioned Peter Freebody, a boat builder from Hurley, to restore the boat to its original state.

More recently, a new Nanni engine, costing around £20,000, was added, the mahogany was polished and varnished, and a new hood cover and forward cockpit tonneau were added.

New interior enhancements include new leather cushions, in hallmark British Racing Green, a vintage Persian-style rug and two Lloyd Loom chairs.

Gillian Nahum, 68, of St Andrew’s Road, Henley, who had sold the boat three times, offered to take the boat to Monaco for the contest. She was friends with Victoria Fash, one of the first female chief executives of a Fortune 500 company who owned the boat twice and died in Monterey, California, on October 9, 2024. Ms Nahum, who dressed in a Seventies-style outfit with a vintage Christian Dior headscarf during the award ceremony, saw the accolades as a tribute to her late friend.

She said: “Victoria had a house on the Thames for some years before ill-health forced her back to California, where she was from, taking Lady Isabelle.

“I was very sad when she had to go back to California, because she wasn’t allowed to fly anymore, so I knew it would be her last trip.”

When Miss Nash died, she left clear instructions to repatriate the boat. As her confidante, Ms Nahum honoured her wishes and it was loaded into a 40ft container for her trip from the Pacific back to the Thames.

She said: “I became her confidante and we had amazing adventures together. She was a very private person who bought a house in Bray, which had a huge, long river frontage where she kept her five boats, which she bought from me. We became great friends, and I would say I was her only friend in the UK. I think that because she was so wealthy, she didn’t trust easily, and people just wanted her money.

“When I drove the boat from the crane, after it arrived across Monaco harbour to the yacht club, I was very emotional. I just thought ‘Vicki would have loved this’.

“I said to the person who runs her estate that ‘I’m doing this for Vicki’ and she would have been absolutely thrilled.”

The boat is currently on sale for £85,000 with Henley Sales and Charter. Ms Nahum added: “It’s rare for a boat to have had so much history. It shows how much the people who’ve owned the boat over the years have loved it, looked after it and appreciated it.

“It would be nice for somebody to continue appreciating it still in five years’ time when she turns 100.”