7 September 2008

This day in history:
Grace Darling was 22 years old when she risked her life in an open boat to help the survivors of the wrecked SS Forfarshire on 7th September 1838. With her father, she rowed for over a mile through raging seas to reach them. Not long after the event Grace developed a nasty cough. Her condition worsened and she went to stay with a cousin in Alnwick where she was attended by the Duke of Northumberland's physician. Grace longed to go home to be by the sea she loved. Her sister Thomasin took Grace home to Bamburgh, and it was there, in Thomasin's cottage that on the 20th October 1842, at the age of twenty six that Grace died. She was buried in St Aidan's Churchyard. The courage that Grace and her family showed on that day is now legendary. read more