The new RNLI memorial in Poole is a sculptural celebration of humanity at its best. But how did such an inspirational landmark come into being?

On a corner plot by a busy road, a metallic structure glints in the sunlight. The towering plinth leans at an improbable angle, hinting at the  force of wind and wave, while the figures above strain every sinew to survive. Every passer by will  be awestruck by the scene, its construction and, on closer inspection, by the 778 names recorded on  ripples of steel around the base. No more so than lifeboat crew and lifeguards arriving for  training at the RNLI’s College.

The 778 names come from every corner of the UK and RoI. They represent the volunteers who did not  return after they answered the call to save lives at sea, from the early 1800s to the 2000s.  Exposed yet resistant to the elements, these names will now never be forgotten. Each has their own  story, and we tell of just one lifeboating disaster, St Ives 1939, on page 6.

The dedication of the RNLI memorial on 3 September marked the culmination of a project initiated in  2006 by the then Chief Executive Andrew Freemantle and only made possible by the existence of  sister charity the RNLI Heritage Trust. A team consisting of 25 people from across the Institution,  from Trustee committee and Council to Engineering, Operations, and Fundraising and Communications departments, to shoreworks specialists and crew, worked with the Public Arts Officer from Poole  Borough Council to bring the idea into reality.

Interpreting a vision

There are already local memorials to some of those who have lost their lives at sea – beautiful stained glass windows, headstones, statues on village greens and promenades. The UK’s National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, Staffordshire, includes the RNLI among its 150 acres devoted to the military, emergency services and charities. But, until now, there has been no single memorial that has named everyone in the British Isles who has lost their life in the cause of saving others at sea.

The brief went even further – the RNLI’s new memorial should also celebrate thousands of people in the past, present and future, whether lost, saved, or those who go to the rescue. It must speak to the individual – you, me, the bereaved, the survivors – and it must be relevant to the collective – the lifesavers and fundraisers of today, potential supporters and volunteers of the future, local residents and tourists. It must also fit with its historic surroundings – the maritime town of Poole.

Memorials are always fraught with controversy, their every centimetre pored over critically, and it is easy to offend when dealing with such sensitive themes. A literal representation of today’s lifesavers would quickly date something that should be timeless, so should the RNLI opt for simple abstraction instead? What about names alone; soft planting or hard stone? The right design had to be something that went beyond art; it had to be a symbol for all that the RNLI stands for.

The RNLI advertised in the Artists Newsletter to invite tenders for the memorial’s design. Over 400 people requested the full brief and 63 made submissions, from individual landscape architects, sculptors and civil engineers, to those working in partnership. Their designs ranged from traditional sculpture, to abstract lighting, to multimedia installations.

The recruitment panel deliberated for many hours before shortlisting 10 and finally interviewing 6. Did the designs meet the purpose of the memorial? Were they durable and low maintenance? How accessible would they be? Would they be visible at night? What would the appointed person or team be like to work with and had they taken into account the poignant possibility of more names needing to be added in the future?

There was stiff competition and the decision was a hard one but the commission eventually went to sculptor Sam Holland. Her public works of art include an imposing and lifelike bronze of the late RNLI Coxswain and family friend Dic Evans at Moelfre, Isle of Anglesey. This time she proposed to create a deliberately less identifiable portrait of boat, rescuer and rescuee using strips of marine grade stainless steel.

‘The design I submitted was intended to be bold and simple, incorporating theelements of courage, loss and remembrance to create a powerful sculpture,’ she explains. ‘The challenge for me personally is to capture a sense of movement within any medium. But there were so many threads to draw together to achieve the final goal.’

Cycling, singing and subsidy

Meanwhile, how was this all to be funded? The sculpture alone was budgeted at £150,000 and the groundworks, landscaping, lighting, signage, access and seating would double this. The donations made so generously to the RNLI for the provision of its lifesaving services cannot legally be used for the memorial so the project is being funded through the RNLI Heritage Trust. The purpose of this sister charity is to preserve and promote the historic objects and archives of the Institution for future generations and so it can fundraise for such work.

Andrew Freemantle daringly opened proceedings with a sponsored cycle ride from Poole to Rome, which raised over £60,000 for the Heritage Trust’s memorial fund. RNLI Headquarters’ Reception team, Julia Masterson, Jackie Stevens and Lin Robbins, went on to hold many events, competitions, and raffles for staff and visitors, raising a further £6,000. Julia explains: ‘We are not professional fundraisers but feel strongly about doing something personally. During the course of a day we meet many of the crew and lifeguards who think nothing of putting their lives on the line when necessary and we have respect for and pride in every one of them.’

Supporters throughout the UK and RoI clearly feel the same and have made donations from pennies to thousands of pounds. Companies have given prizes for raffles, or even contributed work for free, such as £5,000-worth of lighting design. Small grants, trusts and matched funding have all helped towards the £300,000 target and it is hoped that the VAT paid to the UK Government for the construction of the memorial can be reclaimed from the Memorials Grant Scheme.

Detective work

Family history TV and radio programmes like Who do you think you are? make it appear simple to track down names from the past – it’s not. The first source for names for the RNLI memorial turned out to be less reliable than first thought.

In the early 1970s, Lord Saltoun, a trustee of the RNLI, proposed and paid for a memorial book to preserve the memory of crew lost at sea. Exquisitely illustrated on vellum by a team of scribes and illuminators volumes I and, since 1990, II contain 438 names. The introduction states: ‘While all those who are known to have given their lives in the service are inscribed, many names remain unrecorded here.’ This was indeed just the starting point for research.

The late Grahame Farr, a lifeboat enthusiast, carried out careful research over many years into the histories of lifeboat stations and, after his death in 1983, his files were passed into the safe keeping of the RNLI. Present-day Honorary Archivist of the Lifeboat Enthusiasts’ Society, Jeff Morris, has his own extensive records. Jeff joined RNLI Service Information Section Manager Brian Wead and Crew Member and freelance Editor Anne Millman in trawling through his and Grahame’s records as well as 150 years of the Lifeboat, the RNLI’s Wreck and reward minutes, Committee minutes from the 1800s, local history books and more. The Lifesaving Awards Research Society’s journal revealed 10 names from the north Wales community alone. All in all, hundreds more names came to light.

The discovery of lives previously unknown can be intriguing, fascinating and exciting but this trio of researchers weren’t quite prepared for what else they would experience. Brian reflects: ‘I felt more emotional than I expected. Behind the names were stories of tragedy, some forgotten, some still vivid memories through the generations.’

Anne found that the names were a testament across the centuries to the endurance of lifeboat families. She recalls: ‘The research brought home to me the stark realities of the risks involved and immersing myself in their stories brought me closer to the people who had died. It was a profound time and makes me even more proud to be part of a crew and the RNLI today.’

Another surprise was the diversity of people uncovered. Alongside RNLI crew are

volunteers from lifeboats pre-dating the creation of the charity in 1824. The list also includes station personnel, shore helpers, independent lifeboat crew members, coastguards, firemen, a policeman, a helicopter winchman – and one woman.

Despite internet technology, the odds were stacked against the researchers. It wasn’t possible to go through every single page of the source documents, records are especially patchy for closed lifeboat stations and not all details were recorded at the time anyway. For a few locations, a disaster’s date and number of casualties were found but no individual names, so these have been included as ‘unknown’ on the memorial. Even now, new names are coming to light.

In some cases, the spellings of names were inconsistent between sources. How could accuracy be assured before they were etched in time? Coastal and regional staff and volunteers and their families were involved in the creation of the master list. Scotland’s Divisional Assessor Trainer Dave Martin even went as far as visiting graveyards to find and check names.

From maquette to memorial

As the names were being finalised, Sam was producing a maquette of the sculpture before building scale models of the figures and boat. She says: ‘My creativity is irrelevant if it cannot be translated into the practical, so it was important to get the correct dimensions.’

She used soldier dolls to work out the proportions and angle of the figures on the plinth and a life model to make sure of the action element and the muscle and ligament definition. She built a full-size template plinth in wood and five versions of the boat in steel before she was happy with the shape.

Sam produced the 2.5m-high figures in her studio without having to outsource the work. The boat, however, was too large to fit so was produced by steel fabricators, working to her specifications. The original plan was to make the real plinth in concrete but the size and angle of it made it too difficult and costly to produce a good quality finish without air bubbles. The solution was for the firm that makes the RNLI’s lifeboat fuel tanks to produce the plinth in rolled steel.

Meanwhile on site, deep excavations were made to allow the diversion of a 40,000V electricity cable, the building of adequate foundations and the installation of the lighting. The future of the wider location had to be borne in mind too: the memorial stands at the landside edge of the RNLI’s boatyard, which the RNLI plans to raise by 1m to combat the flooding, once funds are available.

As the project moved into its last year, adjustments were made to the footprint of the plot and the typography of the names, readers of the Lifeboat helped to choose a quotation to add to the names, and a poem was contributed by Nick Jenkins. One constant, however, was Sam’s commitment. RNLI Display and Interpretation Manager Maureen La Frenais says: ‘Sam, her assistant Audrey Robins and fellow sculptor Fliss Watts worked especially hard over the 2 weeks following the sculpture’s arrival at Poole, determined to make sure everything was just as she’d planned.

‘Sam had a clear vision throughout the project, kept on time and to budget – and was great fun to work with too. We certainly made the right choice!’ It is thanks to all those involved in its creation that this beautiful landmark successfully celebrates all those who are unflinching in their resolve to save lives at sea. As the memorial quotes the RNLI’s founder Sir William Hillary: ‘With courage, nothing is impossible.’

[Thank you to the many readers who, together, have already made the largest single contribution to the Heritage Trust's memorial fund. It is not too late to donate: please contact the RNLI Supporter Care team for details.

If you have any information that might help the ongoing research please contact the RNLI Heritage Trust c/o RNLI Headquarters.]