Sir William Hillary, The Almost Forgotten Hero

"With Courage, Nothing is Impossible": Sir William Hillary, The Almost Forgotten Hero
a talk by Trevor Gibbs

Baronet, bigamist and bankrupt, Sir William Hillary died impoverished and disillusioned on January 5, 1847. He was seventy-six years old.

During his lifetime he had been a friend to princes and prime-ministers. He had beggared himself and his family raising a private army to fight off a Napoleonic invasion. And he was reputedly responsible for personally saving the lives of over 500 people from the seas around his adopted Manx home.
Over the course of the nearly four decades that he spent on the Isle of Man, Hillary was awarded no fewer than four gold medals from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, the institution he helped to found in 1824. His obituaries in the Manx and British press heralded his “…unceasing endeavours to promote the honour and welfare of his country”.
And yet, after his death, his grave remained unmarked for nearly 75 years.

This talk by Trevor Gibbs was given for the Peel Heritage Trust at the Peel Centenary Centre on Wednesday 15 January 2025.