Weathering the Storms: The Organisational Development of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, 1849 - 1897

Abstract

This thesis examines a pivotal period in the history of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) between 1849 and 1897 during which the charity underwent a seismic transformation which not only brought it back from the brink of collapse but also laid the foundations of the modern lifesaving organisation through an extensive re-organisation and expansion programme. At the beginning of the period and despite its auspicious beginnings a quarter of a century earlier, the RNLI was a fragile organisation with a small number of lifeboats, most of which were unserviceable, and an income of just £354. Four decades later, the RNLI had become a large, sophisticated and complex organisation with an annual income of more than £60,000 and which wielded considerable influence at the highest levels of government and Parliament, illustrated by its handling of a parliamentary select committee inquiry into its management and operations in 1897.

The central research question which this thesis addresses is why was Britain and Ireland’s lifeboat service provided by a charity rather than the state? Drawing on primary sources from both the RNLI’s own archive as well as government papers from the National Archive, the thesis examines a fifteen year period in which the RNLI received state aid and develops our understanding of laissez-faire and state intervention in the nineteenth century by examining how it operated in practice in a highly unusual scenario of government funding for a private charity. The thesis argues that the RNLI’s re-organisation and expansion into a truly national lifeboat service for the first time in its history was only made possible through government assistance.

Despite its prominence as a national charity, the RNLI has received only cursory attention in the historiography on charity and philanthropy in the nineteenth century. This thesis, which is the first critical study of the charity in an academic context, closes this gap by analysing the RNLI’s pioneering fundraising techniques in the crowded Victorian ‘charity market’ alongside its highly sophisticated publicity, branding and reputation management strategies.