Roger Newbrook

Photographs on a family wall sparked Dorothy Brownlee’s lifelong memory of one of the RNLI’s greatest missions – when Tynemouth’s lifeboat battled a raging storm to rescue 50 people from the wrecked hospital ship Rohilla in 1914. As the RNLI marks its bicentenary, Dorothy now shares the remarkable story of her grandfather and great-uncle’s courage, bringing a dramatic chapter of local and national history back into the light.