IN their 200th year, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution will be celebrating the first-ever street collection for charity.

The Salisbury branch of the RNLI will mark the National Collection Week with a day of events at the Guildhall, in conjunction with Salisbury City Council and other organisations, on Saturday October 12th.

Publicity Officer David Dymond said that the branch is very pleased to hold this event as part of the RNLI’s National Collection Week: “As well as volunteers with collection buckets around the city centre, there will be various activities in front of the Guildhall, including a retail stall for purchasing the always popular RNLI Christmas cards and calendars, music from a brass band and two sea shanty choirs, and a marquee with children’s activities.”

Most of the money collected by the Salisbury branch goes to support the lifesaving activities of the Mudeford station.
Mudeford Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat Mudeford Servant B-806 during a casualty care training exercise. (Image: Nathan Williams) The very first street collection by any UK charity took place in Manchester on Saturday October 10th 1891.

That first Lifeboat Saturday was sparked by the tragic loss of 27 lives in the ill-fated attempted rescue of a ship, the Mexico.

Sir Charles Macara, a wealthy Mancunian Industrialist, was so concerned for the widows and children of the volunteers lost that he decided to organise a street collection.

Ray Stedman, Chairman of the Salisbury fundraising branch of RNLI, stressed the significance: "The first street collection in 1891 was a significant change to fundraising to support charities in the UK.

"Up to that point, charities had been supported by wealthy benefactors."

Ray continued: "It was the first time in the UK that the public had been asked to contribute and this changed charity fundraising forever."

The RNLI was founded 200 years ago, on 4th March 1824, by Sir William Hilary who famously said: "With courage nothing is impossible."

Accepted as a way of life at sea, in the 1800s there were an average of 1,800 shipwrecks a year around our coasts, but Sir William wanted change. 

The RNLI is still looking for volunteers to help with the celebrations marked for Saturday 12th October.

If you can help, please contact Ray on 07900 493215 or by email at raystedman@gmail.com.

For more on the history of the first UK charity street collection, click here.

For more information on the RNLI's history, click here.