1 July 2015
By Bryan T. Smyth
bryan@TheCork.ie
An exciting new exhibition on the role of the Royal National lifeboat Institution is coming to Camden Fort Meagher
In Crosshaven and will be open to the public every weekend during July
The bravery of RNLI volunteers who risked their lives to save others during the First World War are the focus of an exhibition touring the UK and Ireland, Hope in the Great War.
The exhibition features six inspirational lifeboat rescue stories from around our coasts during the war. During the Great War, lifeboat crews launched 1,808 times, rescuing 5,332 people. And it was often down to the older generation to go to the aid of those in danger at sea, while many of the younger men were on active duty.
Among the stories featured in the exhibition are Cromer RNLI lifeboat’s rescue of the Pyrin and Fernebo, which saw 33 people saved from the sea on 9 January 1917, and the 1914 Whitby RNLI lifeboat rescue of the wrecked hospital ship HMHS Rohilla which saw 144 people saved from the sea.
It is touring for four years – the length of the war – and opened on 4 February 2014 in the RNLI’s Henry Blogg Museum in Cromer.
The exhibition was made possible by an Arts Council England grant of £78,200 awarded to the RNLI in order to share
more widely the role of the charity’s coastal community volunteers during WW1 to help mark the centenary.
Community groups have come together to create interactive artworks to help tell the stories of the RNLI during the Great War.
Jacqui Palmer who is co-ordinating the exhibition, says: “As the world remembers the tragic events of the Great War,
it’s important that we also remember the courage and determination of those who risked their own lives to save others at a sea.
More than 15,000 people have visited the exhibition so far and community groups have been creating amazing artworks for
the exhibition, so it’s been a great way for everyone to come together and learn about the courageous work of our RNLI
volunteers and coastal communities during the conflict.”
