Photos mark 200 years of life-saving at sea

Photographs celebrating 200 years of life-saving at sea have been restored and released by the RNLI.

The charity formed on 4 March 1824 and has saved more than 144,000 lives across the UK and Ireland.

A scene from 1940 in Poole, Dorset, features among the cleaned and colourised images to mark the bicentenary.

The town is home to the RNLI headquarters and helped people at sea during World War Two.

In May 1940, a fleet of hundreds of pleasure boats, fishing boats and other civilian vessels gathered, at the Admiralty’s request, to take part in the evacuation of British troops from the French port of Dunkirk.

A total of 19 RNLI lifeboats were part of the Little Ships mission, including the Thomas Kirk Wright, from Poole, which can be seen in the restored photographs launching from the old lifeboat station with crowds gathering on the quayside.

The RNLI Poole Old Lifeboat Museum still houses the Thomas Kirk Wright and is open to visitors.

RNLI heritage and archive research manager, Hayley Whiting, said: "The carefully coloured images illustrate just a few highlights of the incredible history of lifesaving over the previous two centuries, where over 144,000 lives have been saved to date.

"The reworked images really do bring a different perspective on some of our archived pictures.

"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."