Today, the name of Grace Darling is synonymous with selfless bravery; at just 22 years old, Grace risked her life to rescue shipwrecked steamship passengers during a severe storm. The story of her short life remains an inspiration.
The seventh of nine children, Grace Horsley Darling was born on 24 November 1815 in Bamburgh, Northumberland. Her father, William, had just become the lighthouse keeper on nearby Brownsman Island; Grace was to grow up in the lighthouse here and, later on, in a newly-built lighthouse on Longstone Island. As a child, Grace took pleasure in the world around her, helping her father in his vegetable gardens and watching the seabirds and wildlife. William often took his children out in a boat to find fish, seabirds’ eggs and eider down, and in quieter weather he allowed them to take the boat and explore their local coastline. Strong and capable, the children quickly became confident navigators, aware of the potential dangers of tides, currents and hidden rocks.
Grace did not attend school, but was taught history, arithmetic and geography by her father. William Darling also taught her to recognise different types of sea vessels, and to keep a sharp lookout for anything unusual. When Grace was ten years old, the family moved to a newly-built lighthouse on Longstone Island. As she grew up, Grace helped her father to maintain the lighthouse lantern, took a turn on the watch and often rowed alone to Brownsman Island to check on the vegetable garden and livestock. Patient, observant, clever and physically capable, her help was invaluable.
The most famous chapter of Grace’s life took place when she was 22 years old. During a storm in September 1838, the steamer Forfarshire ran aground on rocks about a mile away from the Longstone lighthouse. The stern of the vessel broke off and was carried away by the sea, drowning 43 people. The forepart remained on Hawkers Rocks, where those who had survived clung on desperately. When William Darling saw the wreck he hesitated to put to sea; conditions were so difficult that local fishermen thought a rescue impossible. However, Grace persuaded her father to make the attempt, and to let her help as the second hand in the lighthouse boat. Struggling to row the small, open boat for over a mile through turbulent waters, father and daughter made it safely to the rocks and managed to rescue four men and a woman, rowing them to the protection of the lighthouse. They then returned to the shipwreck immediately, where they were able to find four more survivors.
In the days following the rescue, word spread that a young woman had risked her own life to save shipwrecked strangers. Public interest was piqued, and soon The Times newspaper had published an article which asked, “Is there in the whole field of history, or of fiction even, one instance of female heroism to compare for one moment with this?” As her fame grew, Grace found herself the recipient of presents and donations from across Britain. Queen Victoria herself sent Grace £50 as a token of her esteem.
Grace quickly became a (somewhat reluctant) national heroine, the subject of paintings, dramatisations, novels, poems and popular songs. Modest and reticent by nature, Grace was not comfortable in the limelight. She maintained that she had simply been doing her duty when she rescued the passengers of the Forfarshire, and had not expected her bravery to be rewarded nor celebrated.
Sadly, over time the strain of this celebrity status grew too much for Grace, and she became ill. In September 1842 she was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and on October 20th in the same year she died from the disease. She was just 26 years old. William Wordsworth, who had lost a brother in a shipwreck, wrote ‘Grace Darling’ in 1843, after he learned of her death.
Today, Grace Darling is commemorated by a stone memorial and a stained-glass window at St Aidan’s Church in Bamburgh, Northumberland, the village where she was born. Grace has also left an important and lasting legacy, as her story helped to strengthen support for the then-nascent Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). Today, this life-saving charity is staffed by volunteers. Ordinary members of their communities, these volunteers echo the bravery and strength of Grace Darling every time they launch their lifeboats, facing great danger without question in order to save the lives of others.
This article is indebted to The Grace Darling Website www.gracedarling.co.uk (please visit for a more comprehensive account of her life and legacy). Please also visit the Royal National Lifeboat Institution website www.rnli.org to read more about the vital work of this charity.
This blog post was commissioned by Quba Sails.
