THE Committee of Management, at their meeting on the llth August last, appointed George F. Shee, M.A., Secre- tary of the Institution in succession to the late Mr. Charles Dibdin. Mr. Shee was educated at Stonyhurst and at the University of London. He matriculated in 1887,and took his B.A. degree in 1889 in Classics, Philosophy and English, French and German Literature, taking the Gold Medal in Philosophy and the prize for English Literature at college in the same year, and being first in the Honours List in German. In 1896 he took the M.A. Degree in the Language, Literature and Philology of France and Germany, being second on the list. Mr, Shee is the author of " The Briton's First Duty," written in 1899, which for the first time gave a complete statement of the case for the reform of our system of Home Defence upon the basis of national service. The fifth edition of this book is to be published shortly, bring- ing the issue up to 90,000. The interest | aroused by this book eventually led to | the formation of the National Service I League in 1902, under the presidency I of the Duke of Wellington, and Mr.

Shee was offered the Secretaryship.

This office he has held since that date i till his appointment as Secretary of this ; Institution. From 1903 he was Editor of • " The Nation in Arms," the official | organ of the League. The organization of the League has been largely Mr.

Shee's work, and it is interesting to note that it now numbers, with adherents, over 200,000 supporters, and that it has been the model upon which the sister i Leagues of Australia, New Zealand and, | recently, Canada have been founded.

! At a Meeting of the General Council of j the League, held on the 20th October, a vote of thanks to Mr. Shee for his ; services was moved by Lord Roberts ' (President since 1905), seconded by the Duke of Wellington, and carried unani- mously ; and he was awarded the Gold " , Medal of the League.