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Sir William Hillary's 250th Birthday

On 4 January, we celebrated the 250th birthday of our founder Sir William Hillary, whose vision for a charity that saves lives at sea is still going strong today

Born on 4 January 1770, Sir William Hillary was moved by the horrible shipwrecks off the coast of the Isle of Man to do something about it. He wrote an appeal to the nation to create an institution that would help rescue those in trouble at sea - what would become the RNLI. That lifesaving vision is still going strong today, with lifesavers around the coast of the UK and Ireland working 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to save lives.

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