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A painting of the famous rescue owned by the RNLI.

Historic medal sells for £38,000.

The very first gallantry medal awarded to a woman - a brave lighthouse keeper's daughter who helped save nine survivors of a ship wreck - has sold for £38,000.

Grace Darling was Victorian Britain's greatest heroine who risked her life to go to the rescue of the stricken passengers of a sunken paddle steamer.

At dawn on September 7, 1838, Grace spotted the group clinging to a large rock off the Farne Islands, Northumberland, about 600 yards from the Longstone Lighthouse.

The 23-year-old convinced her father to go to their aid and the two of them set off in gale force winds and heavy seas in a 21ft rowing boat.