‘The original vision has become a global phenomenon’

In 1824, Sir William Hillary founded what is now the RNLI. Coxswain Edd Christian takes us back to where it all started.

On 10 October, 1822, HMS Vigilant foundered on St Mary’s Rock in Douglas Bay on the Isle of Man. A bystander urged others to help him row out to rescue those in peril. That man was Sir William Hillary. And, as a result of this and further shipwrecks, he went on to form what we know today as the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. One of Douglas RNLI’s current coxswains explains why, two centuries on, Sir William would be proud.