The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI)

William Hillary was born on the 4th January 1771. A Yorkshire Quaker by descent, William Hillary married Essex-born heiress Frances Elizabeth Disney Ffytche (or Fytche), on the 21st February 1800. William’s religious background did not meet with the approval of his wife’s father, but William still spent his wife’s inheritance (some £20,000) on creating England’s largest private army and placed it at the service of King George III against Napoleon’s threatened invasion.

It was for this that William reputedly received his Baronetcy (Bart) in 1805

William settled in the Isle of Man in 1880 due to the fact that he had creditors and a murky past he wanted to leave behind after his elopement and marriage. William was an equerry to Prince Augustus Fredrick, the young son of George III. His duties included sailing with the Prince in the Mediterranean, and this is where William Hillary learned his basic seamanship and navigation skills.

In 1813 he re-married a local Manx woman (possible bigamously).

William lived at Fort Anne, Douglas, Isle of Man, and soon became aware of the treacherous conditions of the Irish Sea, with many ships getting into difficulties and becoming wrecked around the Island’s coast. This prompted William to train a boat crew, to save the lives of sailors in difficulties. This idea of William’s was not just intended for the Isle of Man but for all of the British coastal waters.

In 1823 William published a pamphlet entitled “An appeal to the British Navy on the humanity and policy of forming a National Institution for preservation of lives and property from shipwreck.” After little response from the Admiralty, but appealing to the more philanthropic member of London society, on the 4th March 1824 at a meeting in the Tavern, Bishopsgate Street, London the “National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck” was founded.

Today it is know as the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and is a firm part of today’s heritage.

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