A memorial dedicated to those who have died while saving lives at sea has been unveiled.
The new sculpture erected at the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) headquarters at Poole, Dorset, UK, commemorates the 778 people, including 65 Irish, who died at sea while saving others.
RNLI Divisional Inspector for Ireland Martyn Smith and Fundraising and Communications Manager Anna Classon attended the event.
Former Dun Laoghaire lifeboat volunteer Billy Scully read out the list of Irish lifeboat stations that lost people.
Crews around Britain and Ireland held a one-minute silence at 12.20pm as well as lowering the RNLI flag.
Members of the public who wish to pay their respects may add a tribute to the RNLI online book of commemorate at www.rnli.ie/commemorate. A full list of the names inscribed on the memorial is also there.
RNLI chief executive Andrew Freemantle said: “The RNLI memorial is a tribute to the many hundreds of people who have given their lives selflessly to save others over the last two hundred years and it will ensure that the sacrifices made by our volunteers, and others, while saving lives at sea are never forgotten.
“Its location, in front of The Lifeboat College in Poole, is truly fitting and will inspire generations of lifesavers from all over the British Isles who will train here in the years to come.”
The 4.5m high sculpture of a person in a boat saving another from the water was designed by Sam Holland and is inscribed with the family motto of the RNLI’s founder, Sir William Hillary: “With courage, nothing is impossible”.
A RNLI spokesman said: “It symbolises the history and future of the RNLI in its most basic and humanitarian form.
“The sculpture is positioned on a dark plinth on which flat bands of stainless steel weave.
“The bands provide both the effect of waves and a material onto which the names of the people who have lost their lives can be engraved — thus becoming an intrinsic part of the memorial.”
Additional Reporting PA
