THE retirement on pension of John Owston, for forty-one years Coxswain of the Scarborough Life-boat, is an event in our annals which provides an opportunity of giving some brief record of a noble life which has been devoted to the service of his fellow-men and which he was always ready to risk for them. We are indebted for the following facts to a gentleman who is intimately acquainted with all the details of Owston's career.

John Owston, the retiring Coxswain of the Scarborough Lifeboat, has for many years followed the calling of a fisherman.

He was born in 1844, being appointed Coxswain of the Scarborough Lifeboat in 1871. Since then he has assisted in saving 230 lives.

In addition he has put off, with his crew, on many occasions to the assistance of fishermen, when they have been overtaken at sea in bad weather.

In 1880, the Committee of Management awarded him the Silver Medal in acknowledgment of his gallant services in the Life-boat, and more particularly for going out four times during the severe gale of the 28th-29th October, 1880, and assisting to rescue the crews, numbering in all twenty-eight persons, from five different wrecks.

In 1902, His Majesty the King, when Prince of Wales, while visiting Londesborough Park, noticed Owston, and, after asking him many questions relative to Life-boat work, congratulated him on his praiseworthy services. Before leaving the locality, the Prince presented him with two silver-mounted pipes bearing the Royal monogram.

Owston's resignation has followed upon an exciting experience : A number of fishing cobles were at sea on the morning of 13th December, 1911, when a gale sprang up. In order to assist the small craft, the Life-boat was launched.

While standing by the cobles as they got amongst the broken water not far from the entrance to the harbour, the big wave JOHN OWSTON, Forty-one years Coxswain of the Scarborough Life-Boat.

Life-boat was struck by which swept Owston and another member of the crew (Lewis Plummer), a young man, into the sea. Both were recovered, but when Owston was rescued he was suffering severely from immersion and shock, being removed in a state of exhaustion to the hospital, and being taken home afterwards. A few days later his resignation was announced.

Owston's connexion with the fishing industry has chiefly been through the coble fishing, lines and crab pots beingused at different seasons. This is a precarious livelihood, and Owston, like most other coblemen, has suffered from loss of gear and being kept ashore by stormy weather.

In the short pleasure season at Scarborough he has taken passengers to sea in his little craft; this break in his usual vocation, the more arduous linefishing, lasted a few weeks only in each year.

Owston is held in general respect | wherever he is known, and it was because of the length of his Life-boat service, and his numerous acts of heroism, j that he was the coxswain selected to i represent the Life-boat Institution at the recent Festival of Empire, where he was in charge of the Life-boat. Owston ; was once washed out of a Life-boat at Montrose, in Scotland, when he and j others were judging the respective merits j of different types of Life-boats. He has j tin three occasions been washed out of ! his coble, and once, when the little craft was "towed down" in a squall—swamped when being towed by a steamer—he was carried home as one dead. But, happily, the sea has not claimed him as a victim.

Owston's career has been marked by the extraordinary success of the rescue efforts made by the various Life-boats under his charge, and much of this must be ascribed to his courage and determination to leave nothing undone to bring about a rescue. The veteran coxswain has always done full justice to the gallantry of the crews serving under him, and has modestly said he could have done nothing alone.

Simultaneously with the retirement of Owston there was announced that of William Claybourn, the second coxswain, and a loyal supporter of Owston throughout his career. The two have shared the perils of Life-boat work together (having been associated in it for 34 years), and have remained firm friends. The second coxswain, who also retires on pension, is over seventy years of age, and participated in most of the rescues effected during the time Owston was coxswain. Better records than have these two life-savers would be difficult to discover, and they have surely earned the right to spend the remainder of their days in smooth waters. In recognition of Owston's exceptionally long and meritorious service as coxswain the Committee of Management have awarded him a special gratuity of £75, besides the pension of £12 a year and the highly valued Certificate of Service.

The following are the principal rescues effected by the Life-boats of which Owston has been coxswain, the figures in brackets indicating lives saved, and we would specially note that he has on every occasion safely brought back every person (without exception) whom he has set out to rescue.

1872. Aug. 26th .

Nov. 10th .

Nov. 14th .

1873. Feb. 8th .

1875. Oct. 14th .

1876. Aug. 18th .

1878. May 8th .

1879. Feb. 18th .

Nov. 12th .

Nov. 12th .

Nov. 25th .

1880. Oct. 28th .

Oct. 28th .

Oct. 28th .

Oct. 28th .

Oct. 29th .

1883. Feb. 7th .

Dec. 12th .

1885. Feb. 22nd .

1885. Nov. 26th .

1886.

Dec. 15th .

1888. March llth.

Dec. 29th .

1889. March 21st.

Sept. 28th .

1890. June 4th .

Lugger New Buxton, of Great Yarmouth (10).

Brig Palestine, of Whitby (6).

E. J. D., of Nantes (4).

Pilot Coble (6).

Coble Mary Ann, of Scarborough (9).

Dandy Dawn, of Grimsby (8).

Coble Sarah, of Scatborough (3).

Fishing Smack, Esmerelda, of Grimsby (5).

Schooner Alert, of Scarborough (2).

Smack Hester, of Ipswich (3).

Eight Scotch fishingboats.

Rendered assistance.

Brig Mary, of South Shields (7).

Schooner Black Eyed Susan, of Bideford (5).

Brig Jeune Adolphe (8).

Sloop J. Prizeman of Plymouth (5).

Dutch galleot Herbrudcr (3).

Dandy Young Alice, of Scarborough (5).

Schooner London, of Hastings (5).

Smack Lady's Page, of Scarborough (5).

S.S. Sequel, of Scarborough (5).

Dandy Gustave, of Valery-en-eaux (4).

Schooner Rainbow, of Harwich (5).

Dandy Vivid, of Scarborough (3).

Steam Yacht Scalpa, of Glasgow (2).

Smack Contrast, of Scarborough (5).

Dandy Linnet, of Lowestoft (6).

Pilot Coble, of Scarborough (4).1891. Aug. 6th 1892. April 28th 1893. Nov. 20th 1898. April 15th Dec. 15th 1900. July 21st 1901. Nov. 13th Deo. 14th 1906.

1907. Jan. 22nd Jan.22nd Jan. 22nd June 1st Sept. 3rd Sept. 3rd 1909. Feb. 5th Lugger Minnie, of Lowestoft (8).

Coble Margaret, of Soarborough (4).

Ketch Excel, of Poole (3).

Fishing cobles. Landed 32 men and assisted to save boats.

Yawl Five Brothers, of Scarborough (2).

Brigantkie Katherine, of South Shields (6).

Brigantine Boxer, of Whitetable (8).

Schooner Satellite, of Dover (8).

Coble Friendship (2).

Coble Maggie, of Scarborough (3).

Coble Rosabel, of Scarborough (3).

Coble Rescue, of Scarborough (3).

Coble Clandra, of Scarborough (2).

Coble Prince Llewellyn(4:).

Fishing vessel Victoria, of Leith (7).

Pilot Coble John, of West Hartlepool (2).

1910. Dec. 9th . Eight Scarborough Cobles (24).

Dec. 30th. . Coble Marjory, of Scarborough (3).

1911. Dec. 13th . Seven Cobles, of Filey.

John Owston and Lewis Plummer washed out of Life-boat.

While Owston's services stand out as a conspicuous instance of long and faithful devotion to the heroic work of the Life-boat, this fine old man would be the first to recognise that it is an example of the spirit and the achievement of many another Coxswain and member of a Life-boat crew around our coasts.

Our readers may, therefore, reflect in perusing this record of Owston's career, that it is typical of a Life-boatman's work, and as long as the men of our maritime population show such spirit and can point to such work, even the most confirmed pessimists may look with courage and hope to the future of Great Britain.