BRAVE volunteers have been risking their own lives to save others off the coast of Harwich for more than 190 years.

But 2015 marks the 50th birthday of the Harwich RNLI since it was re-established in the town in 1965.

After 48 years without a dedicated lifeboat team based in the town, a 15ft inflatable inshore RNLI rescue boat was delivered to the town to cover the area between the River Deben and Walton.

Two years later thousands of people lined the quayside for a naming ceremony of a new all-weather lifeboat called Margaret Graham - which had been funded to the town by an anonymous donator.

A lifeboat was first been stationed in Harwich in 1821, but it wasn't until 1876 that the The Royal National Lifeboat Institution placed a boat and shed in the town - which is now the Lifeboat Museum run by the Harwich Society.

Keith Churchman, spokesman for the Harwich RNLI, said: "While much has changed over the years, from the boathouse, the boats, the equipment and technology on board, to the crew themselves, there is one thing that has remained the same throughout.

"That is, of course, the commitment to saving those in trouble at sea."