Like so many great British ideas, the RNLI began life in the pub!

THE RNLI is two centuries old this week, having saved more than 144,000 lives and counting at sea since then. Yet the now formidable charity's foundation was never a given. Even for an island nation surrounded by a meandering and sometimes jagged coastline and dependent on the sea for fishing and trade, it had a stormy start.
By the 1820s author and philanthropist Sir William Hillary had begun work to implement an official manned service intending to preserve lives and assist vessels in distress at sea. In the early 19th century there were some 1,800 shipwrecks a year around our coast.
On February 28, 1823, Hilary, who lived in Douglas on the Isle of Man, made an impassioned appeal to the nation. He published a pamphlet detailing his plans for a lifeboat service manned by trained crews for all of the UK and Ireland.
Hilary sent details to the Royal Navy, ministers and prominent citizens, appealing for the formation of a national institution for saving lives at sea.
At its heart would be "a large body of men... in constant readiness to risk their own lives for the preservation of those whom they have never known or seen, perhaps of another nation, merely because they are fellow creatures in extreme peril".
Despite Britain being a seafaring nation his pleas fell on deaf ears, even at The Admiralty. It would take all of his patience and perseverance to find support.
Esta historia es de la edición March 05, 2024 de Daily Express.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición March 05, 2024 de Daily Express.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Palmer's striving to be the perfect 10
BLUES STAR HAPPY TO WEAR ICONIC NUMBER
HEAD START
Ake insists tournament is like a new season for City

Death Valley star: At school, teachers told me I was lazy
Gwyneth Keyworth on ‘carrying the shame' of her undiagnosed ADHD and why, now she understands her condition, it is her superpower as she appears alongside acting royalty Timothy Spall in the Sunday night hit
Big pension fund ditches UK shares
THE London Stock Exchange has been dealt a blow as Scottish Widows dumps UK equities.

LABOUR WHIP RESIGNS AS UNREST OVER DISABILITY BENEFITS GROWS |
VICKY Foxcroft has resigned as a Government whip over proposed cuts to disability benefits.

WE HAVE TO BE GREAT
'GOOD IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH' SAYS STOKES AS HE PREPARES FOR THE ULTIMATE 10-GAME TEST.

It's not the burka we need to ban, it's the balaclava
AS a Conservative, I'm uncomfortable with banning anything. I'm a great believer in freedom of choice. As long as your choices aren't harming anyone else, then I say live and let live. And recent debate around banning the burka in the UK, sparked by Reform UK's newest MP, Sarah Pochin — who won the recent Runcorn and Helsby by-election — has proved what a controversial topic the state-sanctioning of how we dress can be.

MANY POLITICAL CAREERS NEARING FINISH LINE THANKS TO FERRARI
NICK Ferrari, Sunday Express columnist and LBC radio presenter, is the genial assassin of the airwaves.

Chinese student who drugged and raped 10 women asked for castration
SERIAL SEX OFFENDER GETS LIFE IN PRISON

Labour pledges 'decade of national renewal' with hospitals, schools and jails revamped
DILAPIDATED schools, hospitals and prisons will be revamped in a 10-year drive to fix the \"fabric\" of the nation.