THE LIFE-BOAT. the Journal of the Royal National Life-Boat Institution
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THE LIFE-BOAT. The Journal of the Royal National Life-Boat Institution. VOL. XXIV.—No. 273.] MAY, 1921. [FRIGB 64. Important Notice. Owing to the continued extraordinarily high cost of all printing, and the need for economy in view of the large capital expenditure with which the Institution is at present faced, THE LIFE-BOAT will not be published in August, and the next issue, therefore, will appear in November. This decision has been taken with less reluctance than would otherwise have been the case in view of the great amount of important and interesting matter appearing in the present issue, which is practically a double number. Annual Meeting. THE Ninety-seventh Annual General j Cameron, Commander Sir Harry Main- Meeting of THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE- , waring, Bt., R.N.V.R., Sir Keith Smith, BOAT INSTITUTION was held at the K.B.E., Mr. Harry Hargood, O.B.E., Central Hall, Westminster, on Thurs- Mr. H. P. Hussey, Mr. Andrew T. day, the 28th April, at 3 P.M., His Royal i Taylor, J.P., L.C.C., Mr. R. H. Gillespie, Highness the Prince of Wales, K.G., Pre- ; Mr. W. Fortescue Barratt, Hon. Secre- sident of the Institution, in the Chair. tary of the Civil Service Life-boat Fund, Among those present were:—The Con- | Mr. F. C. A. Coventry, Mr. Richard sul- General for France, the Consul- I White, Chairman of the General Steam General for Denmark the Consul-General I Navigation Company, Lieut.-Comman- for Spain, the Right Hon. the Earl der A. B. T. Cayzer, R.N., Chairman Waldegrave, P.C. (Chairman of the of the Clan Line, the Lord Mayor of Committee of Management), Sir Godfrey Bristol, the Mayor and Mayoress of Baring, Bt. (Deputy - Chairman), the ; Wimbledon, the Mayor and Mayoress Right Hon. the Earl of Plymouth, P.C., of Darlington, the Mayor and Mayoress G.B.E., C.B., the Right Hon. Walter of Rotherham, the Mayor and Mayoress Runciman, P.C., Miss Alice Marshall : of Wakefield, the Mayor of Plymouth, (Hon. Secretary of the Oxford Branch), : the Mayor of Tynemouth, the Mayor Admiral the Marquess of Milf ord Haven, of Southend-on-Sea, the Mayor of P.O., G.C.B., the Hon. George Colville, • Salford, the Mayor of Hornsey, the Admiral Sir Frederick E. E. Brock, i Mayor of West Ham, the Chairman of K.C.M.G., C.B., General Sir Charles the Executive Committee of the Navy Monro, Bt., G.C.M.G., G.C.B., Admiral League, the Secretary of the Royal Sir Dudley de Chair, K.C.B., Admiral I National Mission to Deep-Sea Fisher- Commanding Coast-guard and Reserve, men, the Secretary of the Mission to Admiral F. C. Learmouth, C.B., the Seamen, the Secretary of the Ship- Hydrographer of the Admiralty, Vice- ! wrecked Fishermen and Mariners Society, Admiral Sir Frederick Tudor, Rear- I the Secretary of the Carnegie Hero Fund Admiral Charles Rudd, Captain Sir | Trust, Commander Thomas Holmes, Herbert Acton Blake, K.C.M.G., Deputy R.N. (late Chief Inspector of Life-boats), Master of Trinity House, Colonel Sir A. Captain Basil Hall, R.N. (late District Henry McMahon, G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O., Inspector of life-boats), Mr. George F. K.C.I.E., Captain the Viscount Curzon, [ Shee, M.A. (Secretary of the Institution), R.N.V.R., M.P., Major Sir Edward Captain Howard, F. J. Rowley, C.B.E., Coates, Bt., M.P., Sir Woodburn Kirby, R.N. (Chief Inspector of Life-boats), Sir William Corry, Sir Maurice A. Mr. P. W. Gidney and Mr. Charles 146 THE LIFE-BOAT [MAY, 1921. Vince (Assistant Secretaries), the Dis- honour on a Welsh Coxswain for a service which has many similar features with that trict Inspectors of Life-boats, and the rendered by Coxswain William Owen. District Organizing Secretaries. In April, 1915, the King sent a message H.R.H. THE PKINCE OF WALES said: My to the Chairman of the Committee, express- Lords, ladies and gentlemen, I must ask you, ing his high appreciation of the " gallant first of all, to forgive me if I keep you rather service rendered by the Life-boats during a long time, but as the President of the the past months of the war, though they Institution I have rather a long address to have but maintained the splendid traditions read to you. I hope it will not be too boring. of an Institution with which the King is It is a great pleasure to me, as President proud to have been for so many years so of this Institution, to take the Chair for the closely identified." first time at an Annual General Meeting o£ Well, my Lords, ladies and gentlemen, I the Governors. In doing so, I am glad to do not think I need say any more to show carry on the close relationship between my how deep and constant has been the interest family and the Life-boat Service, which has taken in the Institution by all the members marked the history of the Institution since of the Royal Family. Nor could it well be its foundation nearly a hundred years ago. otherwise. Although I am not very old, it I find that I am the seventh President, has been my privilege, in peace and war the Earl of Liverpool, the then Prime alike, to be brought into close contact -with Minister, having been the first President in almost every form of beneficent activity in 1824, and the other periods of office being which the virile and generous spirit of our shared by my grandfather, my father and race shows itself. But I know of none which, myself with the Dukes of Northumberland, while keeping the freedom of voluntary whose family have had so long and honour- organisation and administration, more able a connexion with the development of highly deserves the title of " national" the national service of the Institution. than the Life-boat Service, which is man- My deep interest in the Institution only aged, administered and maintained by THE carries on a tradition established a hundred ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION. years ago, and strengthened by my grand- For it is national, not merely in the extent father and my father. King Edward, when of its operations, which cover every part of Prince of Wales, presided over the Annual the coast of the United Kingdom ; nor in Meeting of the Institution on threa occa- the fact that each part of these Islands sions—in 1867,1884, and 1893; and in 1899, supplies its brave and skilful crews ; nor in soon after he became President, he presided the circumstance that the great majority at a dinner in connexion,with the Life-boat of the ships aaved and of lives rescxied—• Saturday Fund In 1902 he presented the now amounting to the wonderful total of Gold Medal to Thomas Haylett for his over 58,000—have of necessity been British. services at the Caister Life-boat disaster in The national character of the Life-boat the preceding November, a disaster in Service seems to me to lie even more in which Haylett lost two of his sons and one this : that it is the natural outcome of our of his grandsons. At the inquest it was position as the heart and centre of a suggested to Haylett that the Life-boat had maritime Empire, which owes its strength, perhaps given up her attempted rescue in wealth and far-flung dominion to the despair, and returned. It was on this development of Sea Power as manifested occasion that the gallant old man, he was by our Mercantile Marine and protected by then seventy-eight years of age, made the our Navy. And, sprung from the sea, the characteristic reply : " Caister Life-boat Life-boat Service has drawn, from incessant men never turn back." contact with it, those qualities of hardihood, My father has shown the same keen endurance and instant readiness for action appreciation of the Life-boat Service. It which are indispensable to those who live is a curious coincidence that the last by and on it. Moreover, to these qualities occasion on which a Prince of Wales was they add a broad and deep humanity which closely associated with the Institution was prompts them to launch their craft without in May, 1908, when King George, as Prince a moment's hesitation in the face of any of Wales, presented the Gold Medal to danger, in order to succour those who are William Owen, the Coxswain of the Holy- total strangers, and whose only claim upon head Steam Life-boat, Duke of Northumber- them is that they are their fellow-men land, for the service to the steamer Harold, " in peril of the sea." In the light of these of Liverpool. This service -was carried out facts, the-truly national character oi this in terrible weather, with a hurricane blowing great Institution stands out clearly enough. at eighty miles an hour. The Harold had But, my Lords, ladies and gentlemen, it is been driven close to the precipitous coast something more than this. It is universal of Anglesey with tremendous seas breaking in the scope of its beneficence. At any rate, round her, and it took the Life-boat two there is no nation possessing a coastline hours' manoeuvring before communication and any ships which has not benefited, at could be established with a rope, and during some time or other, by the activities of our this period she was in constant danger of British Life-boat Service.