Sat around the table of a London tavern in 1824 – 30 eminent gentlemen put their name to a fledging charity that was to help save the lives of the shipwrecked at sea. It would become, says the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, ‘the best thing to come out of a pub’ – and ahead of its 200th birthday senior reporter Lauren Abbott looks back at two remarkable centuries of lifesaving service. On Monday, March 4 the RNLI will celebrate its 200th anniversary. Funded by public donations – its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have to date saved more than 144,000 lives. Borne from one man’s vision for a…