Hamble Lifeboat has been given £500 to help fit out a new high-speed craft for the rescue service, which is one of the busiest in the country.

The cash came out of the blue from workers at the giant Hamble based Smiths Aerospace plant, which was formerly known as Aerostructures.

Earlier this year the 24-hour, all-year-round inshore rescue service was given £100,000 by 75-year-old spinster Joan Hurrell towards the cost of a new lifeboat to replace the high-speed St Andrew IV rescue craft, which has been in use since 1991.

Miss Hurrell, who worked as a senior technician in a virus research unit in Cambridge, said it had always been her ambition to buy a lifeboat in memory of her late parents.

Hamble Lifeboat has now taken delivery of the hull, and the cash from the aerospace workers' central charities committee will help to fit out the new craft, which will bear the name John and Violet Hurrell.

The cheque was handed over by committee members Phil Thompson and John Lock.

Roger Harding, chairman of the trustees of Hamble Lifeboat, said: "It will be put to very good use.

"We have a lot of expenditure on our new boat and this is very welcome."

The Christmas charity gift was one of many made possible by a scheme where about 800 workers contribute just under £1 a month from their pay to help good causes.