THE identity of a mystery Hoylake Lifeboat crew member who died in tragic circumstances more than 200 years ago has finally been revealed.

The story began on December 22, 1810 when Hoylake Lifeboat was called to assist the vessel Traveller that had got into trouble en route to Liverpool in a tremendous storm. The Lifeboat was capsized in the seas and eight of the 10 crew were lost.

At the inquest at Hoylake on December 24, 1810 Nicholas Seed was named as one of the seven bodies examined at the inquest.

One remaining body had not been recovered at this time but was shortly after.

Seven men were buried as fishermen on Christmas Day and Boxing Day 1810 at St Bridget's Church in West Kirby.

Nicholas Seed, however, was buried in St Hillarys, Wallasey on Christmas Day 1810, but this event did not appear to be recorded.

The following information was discovered after Carol Hunter was attending a history lesson in Hoylake and a slide of the memorial was shown on the screen, this triggered Carol's interest to find out his name.

After browsing the internet, Carol found the coroner’s report into the disaster in a paper called The Chester Courant stating that the missing crewman was Nicholas Seed.

She contacted RNLI Hoylake Lifeboat Station and was put in touch with Lifeboat Operations Manager John Curry who then got in touch with the vicar at St Hillarys.

The vicar asked Anita Lyons, and Anita researched church archives and discovered that the Nicholas Seed buried in the graveyard was the same crewmember lost in that fateful disaster.

Because of the doubt surrounding the name of the eighth crew member, the name unknown Lifeboat man has now been changed to Nicholas Seed.