The Heritage Lottery Fund have bestowed a £1,861,000 grant for the paddle-steamer Medway Queen, which lifted 7,000 British Expeditionary Force troops off the beaches of Dunkirk during World War II.
 
Sheena Vick, Heritage Lottery Fund Manager for the South East, said: ‘Our maritime past is a central part of who we are today.  As ‘the heroine of Dunkirk’ this vessel played an important part in shaping history – saving it in memory of lost generations and for future generations to appreciate is something that we feel passionate about.’ 
 
The restoration will give the chance for apprentices to learn traditional shipbuilding too, saving the vessel and also some of our threatened heritage skills. 
 
The Paddle Steamer Medway Queen was built at the Ailsa shipyard on the Clyde in 1923.  Today the designated vessel is one of the few surviving paddle steamers in the UK with an unrivalled place in both social and naval history.  She was a pleasure craft throughout the post-Edwardian period when the British seaside boom was at its height.