RNLI’S old photographs colourised
Candid snapshots of lifeboats in Sussex and along the south coast have been cleaned and colourised to help celebrate the 200th anniversary of the RNLI.
The stunning collection has been released to bring some of the charity’s rich history to life ahead of its anniversary on March 4.
Hayley Whiting, RNLI heritage and archive research manager, said: "The carefully coloured images illustrate just a few highlights of the incredible history of lifesaving over the previous two centuries.
“Each image has been brought to life by our own in-house creative team, with hours spent on attention to detail, along with research being undertaken to ensure each one gave a true, lifelike representation."
In Sussex, the eight lifeboat stations are Rye Harbour,
Hastings, Eastbourne, Newhaven, Brighton, Shoreham Harbour, Littlehampton and Selsey.
Courageous lifeboat crews and early street fundraising are among the 11 black and white images which have been painstakingly cleaned and colourised, with folds, scratches and dust removed using digital technology.
One photograph taken in 1904 shows the lifeboat William Wallis at Brighton when it was new, boasting ten oars and self-righting capabilities. Local families are working together to pull on ropes to help recover the lifeboat.
Now, more than 100 years later, Brighton RNLI hosts an Atlantic 85, Random Harvest, one of the RNLI’S fastest boats.
Other photographs in the collection include RNLI Poole’s lifeboat Thomas Kirk Wright, which can be seen launching from the old lifeboat station to join others taking part in the Dunkirk Little Ships armada.
It was May 1940 and a fleet of hundreds of pleasure boats, fishing boats and other civilian vessels were gathering, at the Admiralty’s request, to take part in the evacuation of British troops from the French port.
A total of 19 RNLI lifeboats were part of the armada, including Hastings, Eastbourne, Shoreham and Newhaven. Volunteer RNLI crew manned the Ramsgate and Margate lifeboats but the other 17 were used by the Navy for this remarkable mission.