TWO-HUNDRED years of a charity which has saved more than 140,000 lives at sea have been marked by a special ceremony.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), which has stations in North Berwick and Dunbar, celebrated the milestone on Monday.

A Service of Thanksgiving was held at Westminster Abbey in the presence of His Royal Highness The Duke of Kent as president of the RNLI and attended by representatives from every RNLI lifesaving community around the UK and Ireland.

North Berwick volunteers Fraser Fulton (helm) and Steven Selby (crew) were joined at the service by Ian Wilson, John-Robert Eunson and Duncan Binnie, from Dunbar.

Stations across the country, including in East Lothian, are also being lit up to mark the occasion.

A lifeboat station was established by the RNLI in North Berwick in 1860 after the Royal Charter Storm took the lives of five crew from the ship Budona, which was driven ashore near to Canty Bay, to the east of the town.

Between 1860 and 1925, the boathouse, which is still used today, housed six traditional wooden rowing lifeboats.

The boathouse was leased to George R Thomson, Cedar Grove Dairy, who converted the property into a tearoom and restaurant later known as the Victoria Cafe.

In 1965, Benjamin Millar Pearson drowned in the western channel, west of the harbour, while fishing for lobsters. As news of the missing fisherman spread throughout the town, more than 1,000 gathered in silence on Elcho Green.

Like before, tragedy spurred local support for the re-establishment of a lifeboat station in the town.

In 1967, after an appeal, the BBC children’s TV programme Blue Peter funded the cost of a new lifeboat for North Berwick.

Although Dunbar’s lifeboat station was re-established by the Institution in 1864 (previously having lapsed for some years), the history dates back a long time.

There was a lifeboat at Dunbar as early as 1808 and, in December 1810, the lifeboat saved between 40 and 50 men from HMS Pallas in two trips.

On the third trip, she became overcrowded and capsized – 10 seamen of the Pallas and one lifeboat crew member, B Wilson, perished.

Various crew members have been recognised for their bravery over the years, including coxswain Walter Fairbairn, who was awarded the Silver Medal for the rescue of six from the SS King Ja Ja of Swansea that was in difficulties and eventually wrecked near Thorntonloch in 1905.

In 1953, second coxswain R G Brunton was awarded Royal Human Society’s testimonial on parchment for the rescue of a boy who had fallen over the cliffs.

In these pictures, we celebrate our magnificent Dunbar and North Berwick lifeboat crews and stations, and wish them well for centuries to come – all images courtesy of Dunbar and North Berwick RNLI unless otherwise stated.