11 Facts About Grace Darling

Grace Darling was born on 24 November 1815 at her grandfather's house in Northumberland.

Grace Darling was the seventh of nine children born to William and Thomasin Darling, and when only a few weeks old, she was taken to live on Brownsman Island, one of the Farne Islands, in a small cottage attached to the lighthouse.

Grace Darling kept the coble steady in the water, while her father helped four men and the lone surviving woman, Sarah Dawson, into the boat.

Grace Darling then remained at the lighthouse while William and three of the rescued crew members rowed back and recovered four more survivors.

In 1842, Grace Darling fell ill with tuberculosis while visiting the mainland.

Grace Darling then convalesced with her cousins, the MacFarlanes, in their house in Narrowgate, Alnwick.

However, Grace Darling's condition declined and she was conveyed to the place of her birth in Bamburgh, where she died, aged 26, of consumption in October 1842.

Grace Darling is buried in the churchyard of St Aidan's Church, Bamburgh.

Grace Darling's achievement was celebrated in her lifetime; she received a large financial reward in addition to the plaudits of the nation.

Grace Darling's deed was committed to verse by William Wordsworth in his poem "Grace Darling".

In 1882 a four-act drama, Humanity, or a Passage in the Life of Grace Darling, premiered at the Theatre Royal, Leicester and immediately transferred to the vast Standard Theatre in London's Shoreditch.