A half-length portrait to the right showing Greathead in a blue coat, white waistcoat and cravat, wearing a gold medal (presumably that of the Royal Humane Society) on a ribbon around his neck.
Henry Greathead was apprenticed to be a boat builder and then went to sea as a ship’s carpenter. In 1785 he set up his own boat-building business in South Shields. In March 1789, he witnessed the ‘Adventure’ of Newcastle become stranded on the Herd Sands, a shoal off Tynemouth haven. Despite the presence of many witnesses, nothing could be done to rescue the crew and all perished. Greathead resolved to build a lifeboat. He won a competition with his design, which was based on that of a Greenland whale boat with ten oars and space for 20 people. It proved successful and he received a number of awards: the Royal Humane Society gave him 50 guineas (£52.50) and a gold medal; Trinity House, London gave him 100 guineas (£105); and he received the same sum from Lloyd's of London. Following a parliamentary petition, Greathead was awarded £1200 by the government in June 1802 in recognition of the value of his invention. There is an inscription to his memory in the parish church of St Hilda’s in South Shields.