RNLI 200: volunteer crews aboard lifeboats represent the very best of us - a thank you

Yet that is what a small army of volunteers does up and down the country, day in day out, on behalf of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, and today marks a significant milestone in its history as it celebrates two centuries of service.

And there could hardly be a more fitting place to give thanks to the RNLI than Westminster Abbey where today the charity will gather to mark 200 years of saving lives - 146,277 of them to be precise. That’s an average of two lives saved, every single day, for ten-score decades.

One measure of the mettle of those so many owe their lives to is, by way of example, Whitby’s lifeboat station. Over the years it and its volunteer crews have received medals for gallantry some 36 times, each of which representing the most remarkable feats of courage and selflessness needed on board a lifeboat.

That is what binds together those who once would row their vessels to stricken seafarers with those now sailing cutting-edge boats, chocked to the gunwales with the very latest technology - bravery.

Because it matters not whether you navigate by GPS satellite or by the moon and stars, in order to climb aboard a lifeboat, in 1824 or 2024, you must be prepared to put yourself in harm’s way in the hope of saving another.

Many have succumbed to the savagery of the sea, unwilling souls forever stored away in Davy Jones’ locker. Yet one thing is for certain, many more would count themselves among that tragic company were it not for the RNLI.

We are fortunate beyond words that those volunteers stand ready, able and willing to save any one of us, so if you can, offer a donation today.