Grace Horsley Darling was born on 24 November 1815 in her grandparents’ cottage in Bamburgh. She was the seventh child of Thomasin and William Darling.

William was Lighthouse Keeper on Brownsman Island. Grace and her eight siblings were all expected to help out. The family lived at first in the cottage next to the lighthouse until, in 1826, they moved across to the newly built lighthouse on Longstone Island where life was much tougher.

Grace and the other children were taught at home. Alongside her household skills, William showed Grace how to read and write, row and sail the coble, make and mend fishing nets, and look after the tower light. While the other children gradually moved to the mainland, Grace stayed.

When word got out about Grace’s part in the rescue of the SS Forfarshire, she became a national celebrity and a role model for women. But she was hounded by painters and writers, the mass media of the time, and found the attention overwhelming. She, as so many of her compatriots, succumbed to tuberculosis, dying at the tender age of 26 on Thursday 20 October 1842

Although not an RNLI crew member, Grace displayed all the characteristics of the charity’s lifesaving volunteers: courage, endurance, determination and selflessness in the face of danger. She was awarded the RNLI’s Silver Medal in recognition of this, the first woman to receive any medal from the Institution. Grace has since become permanently linked with the RNLI’s history of great rescues.