William Hillary
From ManxWiki
| This article relates to events in the life of Sir William Hillary, 1771-1847 during his time as resident on the island. For information about Hillary prior to moving here please refer to the External Links section. |
William Hillary moved from the UK to the Isle of Man in 1808 where he lived with his second wife, Manx born Emma Tobin, at Fort Anne overlooking Douglas Harbour and bay.
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The RNLI
From his home at Fort Anne Hillary soon became aware of the treacherous nature of the Irish Sea, with many ships being wrecked around the Manx coast. It was this that led to him drawing up plans for a national lifeboat service manned by trained crews.
Initially he received little response from the Admiralty but on appealing to the more philanthropic members of London society, the plans were enthusiastically adopted and the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck was founded in 1824. The title changed 30 years later to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and the first of the new lifeboats to be built was stationed at Douglas in recognition of the work of Sir William.
At the age of 60, Sir William took part in the rescue, in 1830, of the packet ship "St George", which had foundered on Conister Rock at the entrance to Douglas Harbour. He commanded the lifeboat, was washed overboard with others of the lifeboat crew, yet finally everyone aboard the St George was rescued with no loss of life.
It was this incident which prompted Sir William to set up a scheme to build The Tower of Refuge on Conister Rock - a project completed in 1832 which stands to this day at the entrance to Douglas harbour.
In Memorial
Hillary died on 5th January 1847, his body is buried in the graveyard of St. Georges Church in Douglas.
A statue of Hillary by Amanda L. Barton was installed on Douglas Head. Commissioned by Graham Ferguson Lacey of Bishopscourt and donated by him to the Borough of Douglas, it was unveiled on the 21st of September 1999 by H.R.H Prince Michael of Kent.
