Part of the Famous Women window on the staicase of the
Lady Chapel in Liverpool Cathedral.
Grace Darling was born in 1815 at Bamburgh, Northumberland and spent her youth in two lighthouses (Brownsman and Longstone) of which her father, William, was the keeper. In the early hours of 7 September 1838, Grace, looking out from an upstairs window of the Longstone Lighthouse on the Farne Islands, spotted the wreck and survivors of the Forfarshire on Big Harcar, a nearby low rocky island. The Forfarshire had foundered on the rocks and broken in half, one of the halves had sunk during the night. . Amidst tempestuous waves and gale force winds, there followed an amazing rescue of the 9 survivors. Grace's life would never be the same again.