At a meeting of the RNLI committee of management on 5 November 1868, it was decided to dispatch the Inspector of Lifeboats to visit St David's, Pembrokeshire, following a letter from H. Hicks, surgeon, who had stated the necessity of a lifeboat in the area. At a later meeting on 3 December 1868, on receipt of the Inspector's report, it was decided to establish a station at St David's, ''"where it would be in a central position, and command the whole of St. Bride's Bay; and where it could be launched from several beaches on either side of St. David's"''. It was also decided to appropriate to the station, the sum of £420, presented to the Institution by the
Earl of Dartmouth and his tenantry, for the purchase of a lifeboat. In April 1869, a new 32-foot self-righting 'Pulling and Sailing' (P&S) lifeboat, one with sails and (10) oars, was transported to
Pattingham in
Staffordshire, to be exhibited at
Patshull Hall, home of the Earl of Dartmouth. There the lifeboat was named
Augusta, after
Augusta Legge, Countess of Dartmouth, before being launched on trial in the 75-acre Great Lake. The lifeboat was then transported to
Haverfordwest, first being launched on display at
Solva, before arriving at St David's. It was also resolved to establish a lifeboat station at both St David's and at , both managed by the St David's lifeboat committee. Each was to use the same crew, to be exercised in alternate quarters.
Augusta remained in service until 1885, saving 23 lives. In 1860, the RNLI decided to issue Barometers to lifeboat stations. The idea was simple; prevention was better than cure. If the local seafaring population could be advised that the weather was likely to turn, they would be less inclined to set sail, and therefore be less likely to need rescuing. There was no requirement for a barometer at St Justinian, but a barometer was issued to in 1871, where there was a harbour. It is not known when the barometer was relocated, likely sometime after the Solva lifeboat station closed in 1887, but it now sits in a special cabinet, in the centre of St David's. From 1885 to 1910, 16 lives were saved by the crew of the station's new lifeboat,
Gem (ON 59). The lifeboat was wrecked on
The Bitches reef during a rescue on 13 October 1910, and three crewmen drowned: Coxswain John Stephens, and lifeboatmen Henry Rowlands and James Price. Papers concerning the loss are held at Pembrokeshire Record Office (Ref:DX/93/11). A temporary lifeboat,
Charlotte (ON 46), was stationed at
Porthclais for two years, whilst a new station and slipway were constructed to accommodate the station's first motor-powered lifeboat,
General Farrell (ON 614), which arrived on station in 1912.
Swn-y-Mor had been donated by the Civil Service Lifeboat Fund, and the same organisation donated the next lifeboat,
Joseph Soar (ON 971), in 1963. Already fitted with some innovative equipment, she was converted for self-righting in 1974, and during her tenure the crew saved 45 lives. The lifeboat was transferred to in 1985, and sold by the RNLI in 1992, when she was given a civic send-off at
Poole. Undergoing a complete 18-month refit in 2012–2013, the boat is still operating as a pleasure craft based in
Northern Ireland. She is now almost exclusively used in promotion and fundraising for the RNLI, visits dozens of RNLI Stations each year. From 1985 to 1988, the station's All-weather lifeboat was
Ruby and Arthur Reed (ON 990), formerly on station at , where she had already been involved in saving 58 lives. A further nine lives would be saved at St Davids. She was replaced by 47-026
Garside (ON 1139), a new lifeboat which, until superseded in 2013 by the lifeboat
Norah Wortley, had been launched more than 160 times. After the withdrawal of the RAF Rescue Service helicopter from nearby
RAF Brawdy, St Davids trialed an Inshore lifeboat in 1997, and the following year took possession of a permanent addition to the station of a ILB,
Dewi Sant (D-543) (
Saint David). This was replaced in 2008 by
Myrtle & Trevor Gurr (D-704). The lifeboat station and slipways were modernised extensively in the 1990s. In 2014, construction started on a new larger lifeboat house and slipway capable of accommodating the Tamar, with improved access for bringing in equipment and evacuating casualties and more extensive modern facilities; the cost is in the region of £9.5 million. The new facility is a short distance from the existing boathouse which remained in service until the new boathouse was completed. With completion of the new boathouse,
Garside was launched down the slipway of the old boathouse for the last time on 21 October 2016, before heading back to the RNLI headquarters at Poole to join the relief fleet. The new all-weather lifeboat, 16-26
Norah Wortley (ON 1306), was launched from the new station for the first time on 21 October 2016; her naming ceremony took place on 14 March 2017 on the occasion of the official opening of the new station. ==Today==