Trinity House - or, more correctly, the Corporation of Trinity House - came into being in 1514 by Royal Charter granted by Henry VIII.

Trinity House has three main functions:

• The care of all lighthouses in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar.
• Providing aids to navigation, e.g. lightvessels, lighthouses, buoys, radio navigation services etc.
• serving as a charitable organisation for mariners; looking after their safety, welfare, training etc.

The Corporation also inspects buoys etc provided by local harbour authorities, and provides a Deep Sea Pilot Service. It no longer provides local pilots for entering ports.

Trinity House is financed from “Light Dues” levied on commercial shipping calling at ports in the United Kingdom.

The Master of the Corporation (now a merely honorary title) is the Duke of Edinburgh . Previous Masters of Trinity House have included the diarist Samuel Pepys and the Duke of Wellington, and Admiral William Penn (father of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania).

Equivalent bodies in other parts of the British Isles:

• Commissioners of Irish Lights - Republic of Ireland
• Commissioners for Northern Lights - Scotland

External link

• Trinity House