Grace Darling
Born in Bamburgh, NorthumberlandBorn on 24th of November 1815
Died in Bamburgh, Northumberland
Died on 20th of October 1842
British hero of the week November 23rd 2009
For a time Grace Darling, the daughter of a humble lighthouse keeper from Bamburgh, was the great media celebrity of her day, though unlike most modern celebrities she had actually accomplished something, and what is more her deed was one of enormous courage.
Though born on November 24 1815onshore in Bamburgh, Grace spent her childhood at two lighthouses, from the age of three weeks living on Brownsman Island, then aged 10 moving to the lighthouse on Longstone in the Farne Islands. The first place was reasonably comfortable, but Longstone was a barren and windswept rock frequently battered by the North Sea. Her father was the lighthouse keeper, but his family shared the duties of caring for the lantern and reflector, and taking turns at the lookout post atop the building.
Grace achieved fame when she and her father (the other children of the family having left to marry or work elsewhere) carried out a daring rescue of survivors of the steamship Forfarshire which had lost engine power on a trip from Hull to Dundee. During the night of September 7 1838 the ship hit Big Harcar Rock and split in two, the stern sinking. Eight men and one woman from the forward part of the ship made it onto the rock alive, where Grace spotted them at first light. Knowing it was probably too rough for the lifeboat to set out Grace and her father William Darling rowed to the rescue, their route a long one to keep in the lee of the rock. As her father went ashore Grace had to row the boat just off the rock to keep it safe. She then remained with half the party as her father rowed the first group back to the lighthouse before returning to take off the rest. The storm was so bad that the lighthouse was cut off for a further three days.
Grace was an instant (and genuine) heroine, rewarded with money and medals, featured in every newspaper, and visited by numerous portrait painters. Her celebrity was short-lived, however, as she died of tuberculosis on October 20 1842, aged just 26, though her memory is kept alive now by the Grace Darling Museum in Bamburgh.
Buried here
Links:
internal link The Grace Darling Museum
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