November 2025 Lunch and AGM

A slightly smaller attendance than recent but nevertheless our Chairman Norman Rodda welcomed 22 members to lunch and AGM afterwards.

We dined on a Rich Beef Stew with Herb Dumplings, Mashed Potato & Seasonal Vegetables followed by Lemon Meringue Pie with Winter Fruit.

The first business of the Annual General Meeting after lunch was to elect the Committee for 2026 which was exactly the same as this year's! Chairman Norman thanked the members of the Committee for their continued support and noted that we will need some help going forward. Treasurer Phil Wilkins confirmed that the Annual Membership Subscription would remain at £32.

After a short break Bill Scott introduced our speaker Mark Lewis to tell the 'real' story of the 19th century heroine Grace Darling.

On the morning of 7th September 1838 Grace Darling and her father William the Lighthouse keeper at Longstone Lighthouse saved the lives of nine survivors from the shipwrecked steamship Forfarshire.

From the vantage point of Longstone Lighthouse at 4.45am, Grace Darling saw the outline of the wreck. As dawn came at 7am she spotted survivors moving on Big Harcar rock. Grace and her father, William, thought that conditions would prevent the launching of the North Sunderland lifeboat. They both saw it as their duty to try and rescue the survivors.

They took one oar each on their wooden rowing boat, a coble. The tide and wind were so strong that they had to row for nearly a mile to avoid the jagged rocks and reach the survivors safely. 

William leapt out of the boat and on to the rocks, which left Grace to handle the boat alone. To keep it in one place, she had to take both oars and row backwards and forwards, trying to keep it from being smashed on the reef. On the rocks, William found eight men, including one who was badly injured. There was also a woman holding two children, both of whom had died. 

The boat only had room for five people – the injured man and the woman, plus three men, William and Grace. The three men and William rowed together back to the lighthouse. Grace stayed at the lighthouse and looked after the survivors with her mother. 

Her father and two of the Forfarshire crew returned for the other four men. 

The brave rescuers were celebrated all around the world. It was Grace who got the attention, as an unlikely hero in most people’s eyes. A woman demonstrating strength and bravery was headline news. ‘Is there in the field of history, or of fiction even, one instance of female heroism to compare for one moment, with this?’ wrote The Times in 1838. She became a celebrity. 

Sadly Grace didn’t enjoy the attention. Her life changed and she couldn’t go anywhere without being approached by fans.

Without cameras, many people were desperate to know what Grace looked like. She found that writing thank-you letters and sitting for portraits left her little time to get on with her life. She was humble and hated the limelight and the countless requests for locks of her hair, a common request in Victorian times. Grace longed for her old simple life, working in the lighthouse with her family. 

Four years after the famous rescue, in 1842, Grace became ill with tuberculosis. On 20 October that year, Grace died at the age of 26. Hundreds of people, rich and poor, crowded the Northumberland village of Bamburgh to say goodbye.

Thank you Mark for an most interesting talk about one of the most celebrated woman of the Victorian era.