AN Atlantic 85 lifeboat named after West Somerset student Toby Rundle is to be stationed at Clovelly, RNLI officials have confirmed.

Classics student Toby died aged 21 in October 2009 as he was starting his third and final year of a degree course at Oxford.

He was the only son of former Minehead lifeboat helmsman Chris Rundle – now the station's voluntary press officer – and his wife Debbie.

And friends and family have raised more than £170,000 for the lifeboat to be built and named after him.

Contributions have poured in from fellow students at Oxford and at Millfield, where Toby was educated, and more money has been raised though a host of special events, including a charity auction, the Minehead RNLI raft race and a sponsored walk by Debbie's work colleagues at Taunton Deane Borough Council.

Boys at St Philip's Preparatory School in Kensington, where Toby's grandmother formerly taught Latin, took part in a swimathon and raised almost £12,000.

Mr Rundle said the family had been overwhelmed by the response to the appeal, which had raised the necessary money in a little over 18 months.

"When we started fundraising we expected it would take us at least two years if not three," he said.

"But we have had a huge amount of support, not just from people who knew and loved Toby but from others who never knew him but feel naming a lifeboat after him is exactly the right thing to do – and it is, because Toby himself was a great supporter of the RNLI."

Mr Rundle said the family was particularly glad that the boat was being stationed at Clovelly.

"Although the RNLI's boat replacement programme ultimately dictates where any boat is allocated we had asked whether, if possible, Toby's could go to a West Country station – and Clovelly could hardly be a better location," he said.

The boat, which will have the fleet number of B-872, will be built at the Inshore Lifeboat Centre at Cowes and probably delivered to Clovelly in October or November next year.