THE LIFEBOAT. the Journal of the Royal National Life-Boat Institution
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THE LIFEBOAT. The Journal of the Royal National Life-boat Institution. VOL. XXVL—No. 287.] SEPTEMBER, 1926. [This number of The Lifeboat is really the June number. It was almost ready to be printed when, towards the end of June, afire at the works of the Whitefriars Press, Tonbridge, destroyed nearly the whole of the type. The Committee of Management greatly regret the unavoidable delay thus caused. The next number will be published, as usual, in November.] Annual Meeting. THE Hundred and Second Annual Carte, Mrs. Meredith Hardy and General Meeting of the Governors of Miss Silvester ; The Duchess of North- the Institution was held at Caxton Hall, umberland, Lady Louisa Cecil, Lady Westminster, on Wednesday, the 14th Laird Clowes, Lady Meiklejohn, Lady April, at 3 o'clock p.m., the Right Hon. Clinton-Baker, Lady Edith Drum- the Lord Porster of Lepe, G.C.M.G., in j mond, Lady William Cecil, Lady de the Chair. The speakers were His Excel- i Robeck, Mr. W. Fortescue Barratt lency the Norwegian Minister (Mr. P. B. j (Honorary Secretary of the Civil Service Vogt), His Grace the Duke of Northum- I Life-boat Fund), Commander H. S. berland, K.G., C.B.E., M.V.O., Admiral Denny, D.S.O., R.N. (Secretary of the of the Fleet Sir John de Robeck, G.C.B., Navy League), Captain Colin Nicholson, G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O., Sir Godfrey Baring, R.D., R.N.R. (Deputy Secretary, the Bt. (Chairman of the Committee of Mercantile Marine Service Association), Management), Sir William Priestley, Captain Rashleigh, R.N. (Board of J.P., Chairman ot the Bradford Branch, Trade), Miss Alice Marshall, Honorary and Mrs. Hilton Phihpson, M.P. Among Secretary of the Oxford Branch, Mrs. those present were the French, German, Astley Roberts, President of the Ladies' Swedish and Yugo-Slavian Consuls- Life-boat Guild, Eastbourne, Mr, George General, the Mayor and Mayoress of F. Shee, M.A. (Secretary of the Institu- Lambeth.; the following Members of tion), Captain Howard F. J. Rowley, the Committee of Management: The C.B.E., R.N. (Chief Inspector of Life- Hon. George Colville (Deputy Chair- boats), and Major C. R. Satterthwaite, man), Mr. H. Arthur Baker, Major Sir O.B.E., R.E. (Deputy Secretary). Maurice Cameron, K.C.M.G., Captain Lord Forster. Charles J. P. Cave, Colonel Lord William The CHAIRMAN : Since the last Annual Meet- Cecil, C.V.O., Sir John G. Gumming, ing the Institution has suffered a very great K.C.I.E., C.S.I., Mr. Harry Hargood, loss by the death of Her Majesty Queen Alex- andra. Her late Majesty was not only a Royal O.B.E.,J.P.,D.L.,CaptamG.C.Holloway, Patron but a sincere friend who was always O.B.E., Brigadier-General Noel M. Lake, deeply interested in the welfare and work of C.B., Mr. J. F. Lamb, Engineer-Rear- the Institution, and it is both as a friend and Admiral Charles Rudd, The Lord South- as a Queen that we mourn her loss. We rejoice to know that our President, borough, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O., H.B.H. the Prince of Wales, is on the high K.C.S.I., Commander F. F. Tower (late road to complete recovery, and we trust that R.N.V.R.), the Admiral Commanding he may be fully restored to his customary Reserves (Vice-AdmiralSir Lewis Clinton- activity in the near future. (Hear, hear.) The Royal Family have always taken a deep Baker, K.C.B., K.C.V.O.), the Hydro- interest in the Royal National Life-boat grapher of the Navy (Captain H. P. Institution, and H.R.H. Prince Henry has Douglas, C.M.G., R.N.); the following very kindly promised to visit some of the Members of the London Women's Depots in Greater London on Life-boat Day, 4th May (applause), a graceful act which has Committee : Lady Florence Pery been performed by the Prince of Wales, the (Vice-Chairman), Lady Dorothy D'Oyly Duke of York, and Princess Louise on previous 222 THE LIFEBOAT. [SEPTEMBER, 1926. occasions. I am sure His Royal Highness will swains, Bowmen, and Signalmen receive Re- have a very warm welcome on that occasion. taining Fees as Officers of the Boat, and every It gives me very great pleasure to come here Motor Boat has to be provided with a full-time to-day and to present the Annual Report, Motor Mechanic and a part-time Assistant because the occasion gives one an opportunity Motor Mechanic. The Institution rewards the of saying a few words about the Institution crews for their services, remunerates them for and the great work that it does. their exercises, compensates them for injury When an organization has been in existence sustained in the Service, and pensions the for over a hundred years we are sometimes apt widows and orphans of those who may lose to take it for granted, without asking why it their lives in it. The Institution's fleet guards exists, what exactly are its functions, or how it a coast line of some 5,000 miles and guards it carries on its work. I think no better example with extraordinary efficiency and success. of this tendency could be found than the Royal A service of that kind cannot be carried on National Life-boat Institution. For over a unless it has very substantial national support. hundred years (and I may remind you that It cannot be done without great cost, and I this is the one hundred and second Annual think it is a most remarkable fact that the Life- Meeting) it has provided, maintained, and boat Institution is able to carry out this service administered the Life-boat Service of the at a cost of something less than £250,000 a year, British Isles. The pages of its history are full which includes all capital expenditure, such as I of the splendid records of courage, devotion, and ;he construction of Slipways, new Motor Life- self-sacrifice of British Life*boatmen, and, as teats, etc., etc. And, speaking as someone we are reminded to-day, of their wives and quite fresh to the subject, I consider that a most daughters. (Applause.) We may say that the extraordinary achievement, and one of which Life-boatman has become almost a proverbial the Institution, may well be pioud. (Applause.) type of all that is best in our maritime popula- As I have said before, the Institution has tion, so full of courage, endurance, and done its work so well, its record of lives saved humanity. These are qualities we always take —nearly 60,500—is so remarkable, that people for granted in the men who man the Institution's have come to take it for granted, and even boats. And we are fully justified in so doing. among those who come to know the facts there But these very facts make it well worth while is an extraordinary misconception of the posi- for us, from time to time, to look at the whole tion. Some people imagine that the Life-boat thing afresh. The Annual Report which I am Service is " run " by the Government. Others presenting to you to-day enables us to do so. imagine that it is run by the Navy, and some What do we find ? We find an organization, people have been found to believe that it is national in the broadest sense of the word, provided and administered by that admirable which provides and administers a fleet of 217 body the Trinity House, who have, of course, Life-boats, placed at every principal danger- nothing to do with it, although they provide point on the coasts of the United Kingdom. that most important preventative Life-saving Fifty-six of these Boats are Motor Life-boats, Service of the Lighthouses and Light Vessels the rest being Boats of varied types, developed round our coasts. The fact is, of course, that according to the requirements of the coast and the Institution is a voluntary Society, adminis- in the light of the experience of a hundred years tered by a voluntary Committee, with a, small of Life-boat work. These Boats are built to the administrative and technical staff, and assisted designs of the Institution, the material and by hundreds of local Committees, Honorary workmanship, of course, being of the very Secretaries, Honorary Treasurers, and Ladies' highest that Britain can supply, that is to say, Life-boat Guilds in the 888 Branches through- the best in the world. In addition to the Boats, out the United Kingdom. It does not ask for, there are ferro-concrete Slipways, built to defy and does not receive, any subsidy whatever the utmost violence of the waves, so that the from the State. It is now, as it has been for Boats can be launched at any state of tide and a hundred years, the outcome of the spirit of our in any weather without danger to themselves maritime people, finding expression in its most or to the Crews. In many places the horses active, courageous, and humane aspect. which used to be such a valuable and pic- (Applause.) turesque aid to the Life-boat Service have been These are remarkable facts. But the -work replaced by Caterpillar Tractors. Powerful of the Institution, though primarily national, electric winches are constantly needed to draw is more than national in its scope and influence. up the heavy boats on their return to the Slip- I am glad to see here to-day His Excellency ways.