{"id":673565,"date":"2026-01-04T15:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T15:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/673565\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T15:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T15:54:14","slug":"man-who-died-after-withernsea-sea-rescue-named","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/673565\/","title":{"rendered":"Man who died after Withernsea sea rescue named"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emma PetrieEast Yorkshire and Lincolnshire<\/p>\n

\"FamilyFamily handout<\/p>\n

Mark Ratcliffe was pulled unconscious from the sea on Friday<\/p>\n

A man who died trying to save two people from the sea in East Yorkshire has been named as Mark Ratcliffe.<\/p>\n

In a tribute, his family said the 67-year-old was “a true selfless hero with a heart of gold, who was so cruelly taken trying to save others”.<\/p>\n

Mr Ratcliffe was pulled unconscious from the water and died at the scene at Withernsea on Friday, Humberside Police said.<\/p>\n

Police said another body recovered on Friday evening was that of a 45-year-old woman. Officers are continuing to search for one remaining missing person.<\/p>\n

\"BBC\/JoeBBC\/Joe Bilton<\/p>\n

The search for the third person still missing continued on Sunday<\/p>\n

Mr Ratcliffe’s family said: “So many lives are now shattered that you’re gone. You were loved by so many people, and we will all miss you forever.<\/p>\n

“A loving husband, father, son, brother and the best grandad anybody could ever wish for. Sleep tight, we love you, we miss you.”<\/p>\n

Mr Ratcliffe’s son, in a Facebook post, thanked the RNLI, HM coastguards and the emergency services who had done “all they could” and worked tirelessly and relentlessly in awful weather conditions.<\/p>\n

“Bye Dad, I miss you and I will never forget the true hero and role model you were,” he wrote.<\/p>\n

\"BBC\/BeckiBBC\/Becki Bowden<\/p>\n

Floral tributes have been placed close to the scene on the promenade<\/p>\n

At 15:10 GMT on Friday, the coastguard responded to reports of “a number of people in difficulty” in the water.<\/p>\n

Eyewitnesses said they had seen people rushing into the sea to rescue a young woman who had fallen in.<\/p>\n

What followed was a huge search and rescue operation involving about 100 emergency workers, a rescue helicopter, air ambulance and RNLI crews from Withernsea, Bridlington and Hornsea Inshore Rescue.<\/p>\n

The search was paused at about 00:30 on Saturday and resumed at first light but was stood down at 16:00.<\/p>\n

The RNLI thanked members of the public who they said had “assisted and supported” the emergency services.<\/p>\n

“This is a very tragic incident and our thoughts are with the families, friends and all those impacted,” they said in a statement on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Services took place at Withernsea Methodist Church earlier to allow people to reflect on what had happened and light candles for those who had died.<\/p>\n

People have also placed flowers on the promenade. <\/p>\n

Janice Holgate, who travelled from Hull, said it had been “absolutely devastating” to hear what had happened.<\/p>\n

“I had to pay my respects just to let the families know that people are thinking about them,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma PetrieEast Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Family handout Mark Ratcliffe was pulled unconscious from the sea on Friday A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[12,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-673565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115837643522716243","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}