From our historian
| 1824 | Founded as the “National Society for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck” by Lt Col Sir William Hillary as a completely voluntary organisation supported by voluntary donations. |
| 1854 | Captain Ward invents the first life jacket, and then the society changes its name to its present title of “The Royal National Lifeboat Institution |
| 1884 | The lifeboat flag designed, based on the flag of St George |
| 1886 | St Anne’s and Southport lifeboats lost, with a loss of 27 lifeboat men |
| 1890 | The first of six steam lifeboats goes on service, the first three were jet propelled, and the second three were propeller driven. |
| 1891 | The first street collection and Flag Day was held at Stockport, Manchester by Charles Macara |
| 1899 | Lynmouth lifeboat was hauled 10 miles overland by lifeboat men to answer a call |
| 1909 | The first petrol engine powered lifeboat |
| 1917 | The bronze medal added to the silver and gold awards |
| 1921 | The first Ladies lifeboat guild is formed |
| 1924 | One hundred years of lifeboats, with 59,979 lives saved. The cost of runningthe lifeboat service for the previous year, 1923, was £110,000 equal to one farthing per head of population. Radio is introduced to lifeboats |
| 1948 | Henry Blogg, the greatest of all lifeboat men, retires after 53 years service on lifeboats, 38 of those years were as Coxwain. He was awarded 3 gold and 4 silver medals from the RNLI and the George Medal and an MBE from King George VI. He died on 13 June 1954 |
| 1957 | Helicopters start co-operating with lifeboats |
| 1963 | Inshore inflatable lifeboats were introduced; they were called “Zodiacs” |
| 1965 | The first of 3 Clyde class lifeboats was built – 70 ft long! The biggest RNLI lifeboats ever built |
| 1969 | Elizabeth Hosvedt became the first woman lifeboat crew member at Atlantic College |
| 1979 | Senior Coxwain Brian Bevan of Humber lifeboat was awarded Gold, Silver & Bronze medals in the same year |
| 1980 | The Penlee lifeboat disaster! 8 crew members lost their lives bringing the total to 435 lifeboat men since the founding |
| 1982 | A baby girl was born on board the Oban lifeboat “Ann Richie”. The little girl was named Ann after the lifeboat |
| 1994 | BBC Childrens programme Blue Peter raised sufficient money to replace the six Blue Peter inshore lifeboats plus enough to pay for a Trent class all weather lifeboat named Blue Peter VII |
| 1999 | All round celebrations for the 175 years of the RNLI saving lives at sea |
