Frank Kilroy, honorary secretary of Lytham St Annes lifeboat station, goes Round the houses with Sir Charles Macara, who instigated Lifeboat Saturdays in 1891 One hundred years ago this year an event was held which changed the face of charity fund raising… Of all of the shipwrecks and disasters which have afflicted seafarers around these islands there is one which had such a long-term effect that its results are still felt today. This single shipwreck, which took place nearly 105 years ago, began a chain of events which has shaped the way in which the RNLI is funded, and led to the fund-raising flag days which are the mainstay of almost every charity.

It was on 10 December 1886 that the inhabitants of St Annes-on- Sea in Lancashire were told that their lifeboat, Laura Janet, had been lost with all 13 of her crew and it fell to Charles Macara, a member of the St Annes lifeboat committee, to break the news to the anxious relatives.

The lifeboat, along with two others, had been launched late the previous night to the German barque Mexico, wrecked in a severe westerly gale with a crew of 12 on the notorious Horse Bank off Southport.

The lifeboats at Southport, on the opposite shore of the Ribble estuary, and from neighbouring Lytham had also launched to the same wreck and 44 men in all had set out in terrible conditions to rescue 12.

The Lytham boat managed to rescue the Mexico's crew and return safely, but the Southport lifeboat was also lost and only two out of her crew of 16 survived. Altogether 27 lifeboatmen did not return alive.

At this time the Institution had been in existence for 62 years and such a catastrophe had never occurred before. A Disaster Fund was soon set up to help the 16 widows and 50 orphans and Charles Macara served on its committee. Within six weeks the fund had reached £30.000, with donations coming not only from the wealthy but from people in all walks of life.

The Mexico Disaster, as it became known, had drawn the nation's attention to the lifeboat service, but when Charles Macara started to look into the financial position of this life-saving service he found that the situation was far from satisfactory. When he examined the annual accounts for 1890 he was astonished to find that two-thirds of the Institution's income had come from about 100 people who had left bequests or paid for boats.

The remainder of the income was contributed by only about 25,000 of the many millions of people who made up the maritime nation of Great Britain.

Macara was appalled by this state of affairs and resolved to change the Institution's methods of fund raising with a special appeal of his own devising. So started what was to become a nationwide campaign for 'the lifeboats'.

He started his campaign by appealing to the public through the press, which had supported the Disaster Fund magnificently. On 23 July 1891 he wrote that the response to the relief fund had 'emboldened him to appeal once more to the public on behalf of this great National Institution, which is sorely in need of funds'.

Several Northern newspapers published editorials backing him and money started to flow into the Institution, but Macara noted that the majority of donations were still from the wealthy few and not from the nation as a whole.

Still seeking to reach a wider audience he organised the first ever 'Lifeboat Saturday' on 17 October 1891 in the streets of Manchester.

Included in this Saturday cavalcade were two lifeboats and their crews, the Nora Royds from St Annes-on-Sea and the Mary Anna from Southport, both new boats after the Mexico Disaster and manned by new volunteers. The procession formed up in Albert Square and besides the two lifeboats included three bands, detachments from the fire brigade, the ambulance corps, the rocket life-line brigade and boys from the training ship Indefatigable.

The procession was led by a mounted detachment of the city police force followed by an open carriage carrying Mr Macara and other members of the organising committee. As the cavalcade made its way through the crowded streets people threw coins into special carts placed throughout the procession or into the lifeboats themselves.

To ensure that no-one escaped giving Macara had also arranged for purses on long poles to be carried by several burly lifeboatmen and these were thrust at those watching from upstairs windows or the tops of tramcars.

The procession eventually terminated at Belle Vue Gardens where the two lifeboats were launched into the ornamental lake for a demonstration, watched by an estimated 30,000 people.

At the end of the day it was found that £600, mainly in coppers, had been taken on the streets, and that a grand total of £5,500 had been raised, chiefly in small sums. More than that the day had achieved Macara's aim, bringing the lifeboat service to the notice of the 'man in the street' and soliciting his support.

Other northern towns followed Manchester's example, although not on such a grand scale, and by the end of 1891 the contributions from Lancashire and Yorkshire had reached £21,000 compared to only £3,000 for the previous year.

Charles Macara's wife Marion supported him whole-heartedly in his cause and for the first Lifeboat Saturday she organised the ladies of Manchester to help with the collections. On 1 August 1892 she made her own appeal in the press for 'the wives and daughters of England to do their share towards the maintenance of this noble voluntary force'. The response was so great that a national movement was born - the Ladies Auxiliary Committees.

The ladies not only helped with organising fund raising events but started the first collections in private houses, the foundation of today's house-to-house collecting.

The Lifeboat Saturday movement spread rapidly, and the Ladies Auxiliary Committees could usually be found co-operating with the main organisers. By the end of 1893 the Lifeboat Saturday had become an established annual feature in towns and cities the length and breadth of the country.

Royal patronage from HRH the Prince of Wales lent even more support to the cause, and soon Macara had become so heavily involved in the project that he was asked by the RNLI to formulate a national plan to share the burden more evenly.

As a result Great Britain was split into six districts, each with its own committee, and a secretary was appointed from the main town in each area. Charles Macara was elected as chairman for the north of England district committee. An article entitled 'The Lifeboat Saturday rapidly developing' appeared in THE LIFEBOAT for August 1894. It heaped praise on the originators of the movement, the Macaras, and concluded 'they have done wonders in developing the Lifeboat Saturday and Ladies Committee movements, of which they were respectively the originators'.

The Board of the Institution then approached Charles Macara and asked him to attend a meeting in London, with the idea of asking him to join their ranks. Macara attended the meeting but opened his remarks by asking for a sight of the salary list. He proceeded to pick out certain expenses, made a few cutting remarks and declined the Board's offer.

This action unfortunately led to criticism of the Lifeboat Saturday movement and of the way the money had been used by the Institution. The final result of the dispute was the appointment of a Select Committee which sat for four months in 1897 and examined 50 witnesses under oath, including Charles Macara.

The findings at the end of the long enquiry entirely vindicated the Institution and the handling of its affairs and the Committee concluded, rather sadly, that Macara's view was rather coloured by the taking over of what had been his brain-child.

However, the Lifeboat Saturday movement continued, and Macara was still very much involved, until in 1910 the RNLI assumed full control of its organisation and moved its central office from Manchester to London. Charles Macara then ceased his association with the organisation as all his business interests were in the north and he had little time to go to London.

Lifeboat Saturdays continued until the First World War intervened and, as a number of war charities were set up, so the lifeboat collections dropped. The expense of hauling boats through the streets and a shortage of horses, many having been sent to France, also contributed towards its demise.

In 1915 the Institution decided to introduce in its stead a Lifeboat Flag Day, reproducing its house flag in miniature and selling it to the public. The Ladies Auxiliary Committees were the mainstay of these collections.

At the Institution's 1921 annual general meeting the Prince of Wales announced that the committee of management had decided to set up the Ladies Lifeboat Guild to appeal to women in all walks of life. In recognition of their sterling efforts in the past, members of the ladies Auxiliaries automatically became official members. A special brooch, of a design still in use today, was issued and each member received an official membership card. Soon all the Ladies Auxiliary Committees had changed their titles to Ladies Guilds and the new movement caught the imagination of ladies | everywhere. I Besides annual flag days, these guilds started to I organise bazaars, coffee mornings, tea dances and so on, and soon they became the mainstay of the RNLI's voluntary fund raising efforts.

The story continues to this day, although some of the fund raising ideas have become a little more exotic, taking in such things as sponsored parachute jumps and marathons.

But what became of the person who, from witnessing a tragedy, had started this great fund raising idea? In 1911 Charles Macara was made a Baronet for his work in the cotton industry, a suitable reward for a man who had laboured so long and hard for the benefit of others. Many foreign countries also honoured him, but perhaps the best commendation for his voluntary work was given by his biographer, W. Haslam Mills - 'He brought charity into the streets and the streets into charity'.

Sir Charles Macara continued as chairman of the St Annes branch committee and on 13 May 1924 he achieved another first when he made a radio appeal from the 2ZY Manchester station for funds to provide motor lifeboats for the Institution. But in 1926 due to silting in the Ribble Estuary the St Annes-on-Sea lifeboat station was closed. Shortly afterwards Sir Charles moved to Cheshire and died there on 2 January 1929, nine days before his 84th birthday.

At his own request he was buried in a simple grave in the churchyard at St Annes, alongside the grave which contained the bodies of five of his lifeboatmen friends lost going to the wreck of the Mexico.

1991 is the centenary of the first Lifeboat Saturday, and will be marked in a number of ways. The north west regional office is planning a celebration week in October and both the St Annes-on- Sea and Lytham Ladies lifeboat guilds are organising suitable events. The Lytham lifeboat museum houses a comprehensive displav on the wreck of the Mexico and this year it will be complemented by a special exhibit on Lifeboat Saturday and the Ladies Guilds. The museum is on the promenade next to the windmill, and will be open from 25 May to 21 September on Saturdays. Sundays.

Tuesdays and Thursda sfrom 1030 to 1630. and Wednesdays in Jttlv and August from 1330 to 1630.

There may be commemorative events elsewhere in the country and if so details will be provided in subsequent issues of The Lifeboat..