WOMEN OF COURAGE
No human act is more worthy of heart-stirring admiration and earnest celebration than one that puts the perpetrator’s life at risk. To save someone from certain death is the most selfless of endeavours, richly deserving of eternal recognition.
This year marks the 175th anniversary of one of the most remarkable examples of such courage. On 7 September 1838, Grace Darling, who was only 22, and her lighthouse keeper father William, set off in only a rowing boat on tempestuous seas, without lifejackets, to rescue survivors of the wrecked SS Forfarshire.
From the window of Longstone Lighthouse, Grace had seen desperate people clinging to Big Harcar rock off the Northumberland coast, and they feared the local lifeboat, with Grace’s brother among the crew, would not reach them in time. They saved nine people, and Grace became one of Britain’s most celebrated heroines.
Of course, this young woman was not the only rescuer that day. But her story stands out because this was an age when such outstanding bravery was not expected from mere women.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, women helped to launch and recover the lifeboats, after what was to become the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) was founded in 1824, but it wasn’t until 1967 that the first woman joined as crew. Now, eight per cent of volunteer lifeboat crew are women, who take a full and active part in rescues alongside the men.
The crew of the Porthdinllaen Lifeboat, stationed near Morfa Nefyn on the north coast of the Lleyn Peninsula in Gwynedd, North Wales, includes four young women among 20 men. Caryl Jones is an 18-year-old student at Meirion-Dwyfor College, Pwllheli, who hopes to work with children after completing her education. Her father and uncle are lifeboat crew, and her mother is on the fundraising committee, all of whom inspired Caryl to get involved with the RNLI.
‘There’s nothing much women can’t do on the lifeboats nowadays,’ she says. ‘Men are a little bit stronger physically, but working together is the most important thing.’
Caryl Thomas, 23, a police community support officer, joined the RNLI when she was 17, again following family members.
‘The minute the pager goes off , the adrenalin starts pumping, and you don’t really have to think about what to do,’ she says. ‘Thanks to the training, you just get on with the job.’
Lisa Roberts, 21, is training to be an officer in the merchant navy and has been an RNLI volunteer since she was 16. While ‘shouts’ might not always be dramatic, there is always the potential for disaster, even simply towing broken-down yachts, she says.
TV producer Mali Parry-Jones, 34, is a relatively new recruit. ‘What Grace Darling did was very courageous,’ she says. ‘Years ago, there was a lot of manual work, and the stronger you were, the better, but today’s modern lifeboats are so well equipped there’s less physical work to be done.’
How do male and female crew get on? ‘There’s plenty of leg-pulling, plenty of banter, but it is all about teamwork, and if you need a hand from someone stronger than you, they’re always there to help out.
‘Women are good at the technical stuff and better at multitasking,’ says Mali, who is engaged to second coxswain Robert Jones, and yes, has been on a ‘shout’ with him.
‘When the pager went off, I was out of bed and dressed before he’d even put his shoes on,’ she laughs. ‘But he’s the coxswain when we’re on the boat together and he’s in charge. It’s all systems go, and a matter of getting to the rescue as soon as possible.
‘Being RNLI crew was one of the things I was most proud of when I met Robert.’
Porthdinllaen Lifeboat’s first coxswain, Mike Davies, certainly does not treat the Caryls, Mali or Lisa any differently because they’re women. Apart from a big difference in boot size – it’s funny to see women’s size fives lined up alongside the men’s size 13s – there’s little difference in ability.
‘Women are just as brave as men. Look at Dame Ellen MacArthur – to sail around the world on your own, that takes guts,’ he says.
‘I really have pushed them in training, and that’s the way they like it. They’re getting all the qualifications any man could get. I would take any of them anywhere, now.’
And what about the men?
‘At first, there were a few rumblings about having female crew members, but we have all this technology now, and I’ve noticed a few of the men asking the women questions.’
‘There’s nothing on the boat that I wouldn’t ask them to do. An entire all-women crew would be hard work, though – the abuse you’d get!’ he jokes.
Mike stoops down to pick up Gemma, his seven-year-old Jack Russell, and affectionately rubs his head into her fur.
‘He doesn’t kiss us on the ears!’ Mali calls out, as if to prove his point.
The RNLI Porthdinllaen Lifeboat crew responded to 11 incidents in 2012, rescuing 21 people. Porthdinllaen’s Tamar class lifeboat, funded by the generous bequest of the late Mr John Dominic Spicer and named after him, features astonishing technology to help keep its crew safe as well as enhance its lifesaving capabilities. A new boathouse is on the way, to keep it in, too.
That doesn’t mean that RNLI crews, the majority of whom do not have a professional maritime background, are never in danger, however, as sea and weather conditions remain as treacherous and unpredictable as ever – since 1838, 329 crew have lost their lives.
But there seems to be no shortage of men and women with the same remarkable courage as Grace Darling.
Clockwise from left: Nicola-Jane Bradbury has a Bronze medal for gallantry, Aileen Jones shows her Bronze medal, Grace Darling by Thomas Brooks c.1800s
The RNLI has awarded 24 gallantry medals to women, 20 in the 19th century, before women served as crew. Since 2003, four female crew members have received medals. In 2005, Aileen Jones was the first female RNLI crew member to be awarded a Bronze medal for Gallantry. In 2007, Sophie Grant-Crookston was the first female lifeguard to be awarded a Bronze medal for Gallantry and in the same year, Dr Christine Bradshaw became the first female doctor to receive a medal for Gallantry (Bronze). Like Grace, at the time of the rescue, Dr Bradshaw was not a crew member. Later she trained to become one. The most recent award went to Nicola-Jane Bradbury, a crew member at Port Isaac in Cornwall, who received a Bronze medal for Gallantry in May this year.
The RNLI awarded Grace and her father William the Institution’s Silver medal for Gallantry for rescuing those nine people shipwrecked on the rock – making the lighthouse keeper’s daughter the first woman in history to receive such an award.
You can learn more about her at the RNLI ’s Grace Darling Museum in Bamburgh, Northumberland, which features the rescue coble (rowing boat), Grace’s dresses, letters, family belongings and commemorative items.
And, of course, her legacy is also reflected to this day in the bravery and selflessness of all the RNLI volunteer lifeboat crews who continue to risk their lives to save others.
a restored 100-year-old woodenkeeled former lifeboat. Up to 12 people, including members of the RNLI Seahouses volunteer crew, will be on board for the day-long return journey to Longstone Lighthouse.
For details of other commemorative events, go to www.rnli.org/gracedarling
To make a donation go to www.rnli.org/gracedarling or to make a £3 donation, text GRACE to 70300.
This year marks the 175th anniversary of one of the most remarkable examples of such courage. On 7 September 1838, Grace Darling, who was only 22, and her lighthouse keeper father William, set off in only a rowing boat on tempestuous seas, without lifejackets, to rescue survivors of the wrecked SS Forfarshire.
From the window of Longstone Lighthouse, Grace had seen desperate people clinging to Big Harcar rock off the Northumberland coast, and they feared the local lifeboat, with Grace’s brother among the crew, would not reach them in time. They saved nine people, and Grace became one of Britain’s most celebrated heroines.
Of course, this young woman was not the only rescuer that day. But her story stands out because this was an age when such outstanding bravery was not expected from mere women.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, women helped to launch and recover the lifeboats, after what was to become the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) was founded in 1824, but it wasn’t until 1967 that the first woman joined as crew. Now, eight per cent of volunteer lifeboat crew are women, who take a full and active part in rescues alongside the men.
The crew of the Porthdinllaen Lifeboat, stationed near Morfa Nefyn on the north coast of the Lleyn Peninsula in Gwynedd, North Wales, includes four young women among 20 men. Caryl Jones is an 18-year-old student at Meirion-Dwyfor College, Pwllheli, who hopes to work with children after completing her education. Her father and uncle are lifeboat crew, and her mother is on the fundraising committee, all of whom inspired Caryl to get involved with the RNLI.
‘There’s nothing much women can’t do on the lifeboats nowadays,’ she says. ‘Men are a little bit stronger physically, but working together is the most important thing.’
Caryl Thomas, 23, a police community support officer, joined the RNLI when she was 17, again following family members.
‘The minute the pager goes off , the adrenalin starts pumping, and you don’t really have to think about what to do,’ she says. ‘Thanks to the training, you just get on with the job.’
Lisa Roberts, 21, is training to be an officer in the merchant navy and has been an RNLI volunteer since she was 16. While ‘shouts’ might not always be dramatic, there is always the potential for disaster, even simply towing broken-down yachts, she says.
TV producer Mali Parry-Jones, 34, is a relatively new recruit. ‘What Grace Darling did was very courageous,’ she says. ‘Years ago, there was a lot of manual work, and the stronger you were, the better, but today’s modern lifeboats are so well equipped there’s less physical work to be done.’
How do male and female crew get on? ‘There’s plenty of leg-pulling, plenty of banter, but it is all about teamwork, and if you need a hand from someone stronger than you, they’re always there to help out.
‘Women are good at the technical stuff and better at multitasking,’ says Mali, who is engaged to second coxswain Robert Jones, and yes, has been on a ‘shout’ with him.
‘When the pager went off, I was out of bed and dressed before he’d even put his shoes on,’ she laughs. ‘But he’s the coxswain when we’re on the boat together and he’s in charge. It’s all systems go, and a matter of getting to the rescue as soon as possible.
‘Being RNLI crew was one of the things I was most proud of when I met Robert.’
Porthdinllaen Lifeboat’s first coxswain, Mike Davies, certainly does not treat the Caryls, Mali or Lisa any differently because they’re women. Apart from a big difference in boot size – it’s funny to see women’s size fives lined up alongside the men’s size 13s – there’s little difference in ability.
‘Women are just as brave as men. Look at Dame Ellen MacArthur – to sail around the world on your own, that takes guts,’ he says.
‘I really have pushed them in training, and that’s the way they like it. They’re getting all the qualifications any man could get. I would take any of them anywhere, now.’
And what about the men?
‘At first, there were a few rumblings about having female crew members, but we have all this technology now, and I’ve noticed a few of the men asking the women questions.’
‘There’s nothing on the boat that I wouldn’t ask them to do. An entire all-women crew would be hard work, though – the abuse you’d get!’ he jokes.
Mike stoops down to pick up Gemma, his seven-year-old Jack Russell, and affectionately rubs his head into her fur.
‘He doesn’t kiss us on the ears!’ Mali calls out, as if to prove his point.
The RNLI Porthdinllaen Lifeboat crew responded to 11 incidents in 2012, rescuing 21 people. Porthdinllaen’s Tamar class lifeboat, funded by the generous bequest of the late Mr John Dominic Spicer and named after him, features astonishing technology to help keep its crew safe as well as enhance its lifesaving capabilities. A new boathouse is on the way, to keep it in, too.
That doesn’t mean that RNLI crews, the majority of whom do not have a professional maritime background, are never in danger, however, as sea and weather conditions remain as treacherous and unpredictable as ever – since 1838, 329 crew have lost their lives.
But there seems to be no shortage of men and women with the same remarkable courage as Grace Darling.
Clockwise from left: Nicola-Jane Bradbury has a Bronze medal for gallantry, Aileen Jones shows her Bronze medal, Grace Darling by Thomas Brooks c.1800sThe RNLI has awarded 24 gallantry medals to women, 20 in the 19th century, before women served as crew. Since 2003, four female crew members have received medals. In 2005, Aileen Jones was the first female RNLI crew member to be awarded a Bronze medal for Gallantry. In 2007, Sophie Grant-Crookston was the first female lifeguard to be awarded a Bronze medal for Gallantry and in the same year, Dr Christine Bradshaw became the first female doctor to receive a medal for Gallantry (Bronze). Like Grace, at the time of the rescue, Dr Bradshaw was not a crew member. Later she trained to become one. The most recent award went to Nicola-Jane Bradbury, a crew member at Port Isaac in Cornwall, who received a Bronze medal for Gallantry in May this year.
The RNLI awarded Grace and her father William the Institution’s Silver medal for Gallantry for rescuing those nine people shipwrecked on the rock – making the lighthouse keeper’s daughter the first woman in history to receive such an award.
You can learn more about her at the RNLI ’s Grace Darling Museum in Bamburgh, Northumberland, which features the rescue coble (rowing boat), Grace’s dresses, letters, family belongings and commemorative items.
And, of course, her legacy is also reflected to this day in the bravery and selflessness of all the RNLI volunteer lifeboat crews who continue to risk their lives to save others.
COMMEMORATIVE EVENTS
Seven fishermen from Seahouses also set off to help on 7 September 1838, alerted to the disaster by a cannon fired from Bamburgh Castle. Their journey is to be recreated – weather permitting – on 7 September in the William Riley,a restored 100-year-old woodenkeeled former lifeboat. Up to 12 people, including members of the RNLI Seahouses volunteer crew, will be on board for the day-long return journey to Longstone Lighthouse.
For details of other commemorative events, go to www.rnli.org/gracedarling
HOW YOU CAN HELP
RNLI crews are equipped and trained thanks only to generous donations from the public. The RNLI hopes to raise £50K during the celebrations of the Grace Darling anniversary.- £1,330 trains a volunteer crew member for a whole year.
- £1,296 buys an all-weather lifeboat crew member full kit.
- £194 buys a helmet to protect a crew member's head.
- £150 buys a pager to alert the volunteer crew to a call for help at any time of day or night.
To make a donation go to www.rnli.org/gracedarling or to make a £3 donation, text GRACE to 70300.