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2024: A year like no other

See the highlights from our 200th anniversary year

Communities of RNLI supporters and lifesavers marked the charity’s momentous year in all sorts of ways. From historic journeys that stretched from sea to city, to songs and stories shared by a huge crew of voices - here are just some of the special highlights from 2024.

RNLI lifeboats logo, RNLI 200 years logo and UNESCO logo with the words: 200th anniversary of the RNLI (1824). Celebrated in association with UNESCO.

Image: RNLI and UNESCO

UNESCO recognition

It was an immense honour for our 200th anniversary on 4 March 2024 to be one of the worldwide anniversaries recognised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

This prestigious recognition enabled us to deliver drowning prevention messages around the world with more prominence during 2024, thanks to the support of UNESCO and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

The earliest RNLI records are also listed in UNESCO’s UK Memory of the World Register.

Listen to the podcast

Listen to all 200 episodes of 200 Voices - our podcast featuring a special collection of stories to mark the RNLI’s 200th anniversary. Hear from crew, people who have been rescued, dedicated fundraisers, and caring supporters. 

200 Voices is available wherever you get your podcasts - including Apple Podcasts, Global Player, Spotify and YouTube Music.

RNLI coast to cobbles logo in front of a historic lifeboat on the river Mersey

Coast To Cobbles

Learn how the courage and kindness behind the world's first recorded street collection inspired the special journey of our Coast To Cobbles lifeboat. Read about the time capsule the crew filled along the way, with the help of RNLI communities in North West England.
RNLI scroll and ford vehicle

Connecting our Communities

See the incredible journey of a special scroll, which was signed by members of RNLI communities throughout the UK, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, each proudly pledging their commitment to our mission of saving every one.

Meet Chris, the custodian of the scroll who took on this challenge of a lifetime, and his faithful steed Connie, an all-electric Ford E-Transit, which got Chris and the scroll safely from A to Z.

A scene from the RNLI Storm Force Rescue game showing a D class inshore lifeboat crew in shallow water with rescued dogs onboard

Photo: RNLI

Are you ready to rescue?

Join Stormy Stan, Sandy, and the rest of the gang as the newest lifesaving recruit in Storm Force Rescue.

Released in 2024, this free game is packed with exciting rescue missions and water safety education. Each unique lifesaving scenario gives kids an interactive and fun way to learn about water safety. Players - the young and the young at heart - can use rescue boards, jet skis and lifeboats to help save lives at sea and become a lifesaver. Take a look behind the scenes.

Milton Keynes Community Choir at their RNLI Sing to Save Lives concert in 2024

Photo: ChoirCommunity

Sing to Save Lives

Listen to the chorists who proudly sang their hearts out to mark our 200th anniversary and help raise money to save lives at sea.

ChoirCommunity invited choirs to join our birthday celebrations and created this special playlist on their YouTube channel.

Inside St David’s Cathedral during the RNLI’s Thanksgiving Service on Sunday 14 July 2024. People are seated in pews and an RNLI flag is on display.

Thanksgiving services

Read about some of the special Thanksgiving ceremonies held in honour of the RNLI's 200th anniversary.
A montage of hundreds of photos of RNLI communities taken at the same moment in time - 18:24 - on 1 August 2024. Over the photos is a transparent image of the RNLI Memorial sculpture.

Photo: RNLI Creative

One Moment, One Crew

At 6.24pm (18:24) on Thursday 1 August (1.8.24), RNLI communities around the UK, Ireland and further afield took team photos and selfies in honour of 1824, the year the RNLI was founded.

The result is this One Moment, One Crew montage, which is on display in RNLI buildings including the RNLI College in Poole, Dorset. Digital and printed versions have been carefully preserved in the RNLI archive too for future generations of the charity to enjoy.

Two people in a giant RNLI deckchair at an RNLI lifeboat festival in 2024 with Pembroke Castle in the background. One is dressed in an RNLI Stormy Stan costume.

Photo: RNLI/Anya Walton

Lifeboat festivals

Everyone was invited to celebrate the RNLI’s 200th birthday at lifeboat festivals held at Poole in Dorset, Pembroke Castle in Pembrokeshire and Bamburgh in Northumberland. The festivals immersed supporters into lifesaving at sea and showed them how far we’ve come since 1824 thanks to their kindness, and the kindness of generations of supporters before them.

One of the highlights at Poole Lifeboat Festival was a spectacular mile-long flotilla of lifeboats, made up of historic and modern RNLI and international lifeboats.

A group photo of people from the RNLI, IMRF, and international search and rescue organisations including the Netherlands, Norway, France, Iceland and Uruguay at the Lifeboat Festival in Poole, Dorset, in May 2024

Photo: RNLI/Charis Jefferson

International anniversaries

2024 was also the 200th anniversary year for the Royal Netherlands Sea Rescue Institution (KNRM), and the 100th anniversary of the International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF).

The IMRF was founded following the first International Lifeboat Conference in London, which brought lifeboat organisations across the world together to discuss the problems they were facing, how to tackle them, and how to promote their lifesaving work. Pictured are representatives of the RNLI, IMRF, KNRM, and international search and rescue organisations from Norway, France, Iceland and Uruguay.