Happy Birthday, Royal National Lifeboat Institution

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution was founded on this day in 1824, as a private charity dedicated to saving the lives of mariners in distress. It continues to this day as one of the great successes of individuals working together to promote the common weal. 100% private funded, it operates 230 lifeboats throughout Great Britain, as well as providing beach lifeguards.

The single greatest rescue ever by the RNLI was of 456 souls from the wreck of the SS Suevic, in March 1907. All were brought ashore via rowed lifeboats, with the RNLI crews working for 16 hours straight.

Alas, this valor has not been without cost in lost boats and men. Most recent was 1981, when a lifeboat and the whole crew was lost trying to rescue survivors from the overturned Union Star. Nigel Calder writes movingly of the loss - and of the gritty determination of the survivors to go on providing service - in his must-read book, The English Channel.

Strangely, I cannot find a count of the number of people rescued from a watery grave by the RNLI, but it must certainly run to the tens of thousands.

Well done, chaps, and many happy returns of the day.