Synopses & Reviews
Sometime after 1948, a collection of 39 photographs was borrowed from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution's London headquarters by the American explorer, writer and film-maker, Amos Burg, in all probability for a National Geographic article that was never published. These photographs illustrated the RNLI's history from the 1920s to the end of the Second World War, an era which proved to be one of the RNLI's busiest times as crews around the country repeatedly answered calls to wartime casualties. RNLI wartime records are scarce, so photographs in this collection are of special value. The collection includes pictures of Henry Blogg, probably the most famous lifeboat man of all time, and of one of his Gold Medal-winning rescues. The photos were discovered by Charles Campbell, among piles of paperwork in a shed in the grounds of Burg's house. Each photo had the words 'please return to the RNLI' stamped on the back, so that is exactly what Campbell did, personally delivering them to the RNLI headquarters in Poole 55 years after Burg took them. Each photograph from the 'lost' collection comprises an individual chapter, supported by a narrative description of the rescue depicted. The
Synopsis
Some time after 1948, a collection of 39 photographs was borrowed from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution's London headquarters by the American explorer, writer and film-maker, Amos Burg, in all probability for a National Geographic article that was never published.