IT is with deep regret that we have to record the death of Admiral Sir Richard Vesey Hamilton, G.O.B., which took place, at the age of 83, at Chalfont St. Peter, Bucks, on Wednesday, Sep- tember 18th.

Sir Richard Hamilton joined the Committee of Management in 1889, and his ripe experience was always at the disposal of the Committee in all questions affecting the welfare of the Life-boat service. A brief note of his career, for the details of which we are indebted to the " Times," will, therefore, be of interest to our readers.

Admiral Sir Richard Vesey Hamilton, G.C.B., was born on May 28th, 1829, his father being the Rev. John Vesey Hamilton, Rector of Little Chart, Kent.

He entered the Navy, at the age of 14, on board the Virago, in the Mediter- ranean. After serving continuously in the Mediterranean as midshipman, he became mate to the Assistance, and served in the Arctic Expedition of 1850-51. In October of 1851 he was promoted Lieutenant and, in the following year, joined the Resolute, which was in Arctic waters during the next three years. During this time he was brought into contact with Captain Ommanney, Sir Leopold McClintock, Sir Clements Markham and Sir George Nares, and he took a large and very active part in the laborious work of sledge travelling, which formed so important a feature of the operations carried out by the expedition. In 1855 he was first lieutenant of the sloop Desperate in the Baltic, being appointed to command the gun-boat Haughty early in 1856. He took the Haughty out to China and played a very brilliant part in the attack on the junk fleet in Fatshan Creek on June 1st, 1857, receiving his promotion to Commander on the recommendation of Sir Michael Seymour in recognition of his services.

In June, 1858, Sir Vesey Hamilton commissioned the Hydra for service on the West Coast of Africa, and it is interesting to note that, during his service there, he met again his old friend and shipmate Commander Cave, who was to be, many years afterwards, a fellow member of the Committee of Management of the Institution as Admiral J. Halliday Cave, C.B.

After a long further spell of service abroad, the greater part of which was spent in the West Indies, Sir Vesey Hamilton was in command of the coast- guard ship at Portland from 1870-73, the steam reserve at Devonport from 1873-75, and was Captain Superin- tendent of the Dockyard at Pembroke from 1875-77, being promoted Rear- Admiral in September of the latter year. He commanded on the Coast of Ireland from 1880-83, becoming Vice- Admiral in 1884, and was Commander- in-Chief in China from 1885-87, being recalled from the Far East on his promotion to the rank of Admiral in 1887. In October, 1888, he was appointed one of a small Admiralty Committee of three Admirals, the other two being Sir William Dowell and Sir Frederick Richards, their task being to report on the lessons taught by the Naval manoeuvres of that year, and especially as to " the feasibility or otherwise of maintaining an effective blockade of an enemy's squadron of fast cruisers in strongly fortified ports." The report, which has come to be known as the " Three Admirals' Report," was an epoch-making document and, in the words of the " Times," " may be con- sidered as the starting-point not merely of modern naval literature, but of modern naval policy." In 1889 Sir Vesey Hamilton joined the Admiralty as Second Sea Lord, becoming First Sea Lord a few months later. In 1891 he was appointed Presiderit of the Royal Naval College, where he remained until he was placed on the retired list in 1894. He was not only a man of the widest possible experience, but a keen student of history and a diligent writer on questions of naval history and administration.

The funeral took place at Eltham, Kent. Among those present were Captain B. F. B. Charlton, R.N.

(representing the King), Rear-Admiral Waymouth (representing the Board of Admiralty), Mr. George F. Shee, Secre- tary (representing the Royal National Life-boat Institution), Captain F. Met- calfe Ommanney (Deputy-Chairman of the Seamen's Hospital), Mr. G. A. Steel (representing the First Lord of the Admiralty), Sir Ernest Shackleton and Admiral Sir Lewis Beaumont (repre- senting the Council of the Royal Geographical Society), Captain J.

McClintock, and others..