IT is with the deepest regret that we have to record the death of Lieut.- Augustus Philip Clayton, of Coombe Colonel Sir FitzRoy Augustus Talbot Bank, Kent. He was educated at Clayton, K.C.V.O., which took place i Eton and served in the Grenadier Guards at Fyfield House, Maidenhead, on the j in the Crimea, receiving the medal and 1st August. clasp and the Turkish medal. He Sir FitzRoy Clayton, who was born retired with the rank of Lieutenant- Colonel in 1871, and was Knighted in 1909. He accompanied the Brigade of Guards to Canada in 1861, when there was some fear of an interruption of friendly relations with the United States.

Afterwards, at the Curragh, he instructed the late King in musketry, and was always held in high esteem by His Majesty. He leaves three sons, the eldest of whom, Mr. Harold Clayton, late Lieutenant Severn Division Submarine Miners, is a member of the Committee of Management.

Sir FitzRoy Clayton was intimately associated with the work of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE - BOAT INSTITUTION for half a century. He was one of those men to whom the service of the public is as the breath of their nostrils. While still on the Active List he joined the Committee of Management in 1863, devoting himself from the outset with the greatest zeal and interest to promoting the practical efficiency of the Life-boat service, a task in which his long experience as a yachtsman and his knowledge of boats and boat-sailing proved of the greatest value. He was elected Deputy-Chairman in 1883, a Vice-President in 1885, and Chairman in 1908. This position he held until 1911, when he was seized with a sudden illness, which turned out to be of so serious a character as to compel him reluctantly to resign the Chairmanship, Earl Waldegrave being elected Chairman in his stead.

During his long and intimate connexion with the Institution Sir FitzRoy Clayton took an active part in the development of every detail of the service, and it was on his initiative that the drop keel was adopted as an important feature of the Life-boats.

On his retiring from the Chairmanship, the Committee of Management decided to name the new Motor Lifeboat for Newhaven the Sir FitzRoy Clayton as a tribute of his great services to the Life-boat cause.

Although his illness had prevented his attendance at meetings of the Committee during the last two years, his kindly courtesy and generosity of character will always be remembered by all those who had the privilege of being brought into contact with him in the service of the I Institution.

On the death of Sir FitzRoy Clayton, Mr. Harold Clayton received the following letter from the King's Private Secretary : " The King was very sorry to hear of the death of Sir FitzRoy Clayton, and desires me to express his i true sympathy with you in your sorrow.

His Majesty has known your father for many years, and was especially associated with him in the work of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION to which Sir FitzRoy devoted himself for so many years." WE regret to have to record the death, on the 16th October, of Mr. Andrew Tarras, solicitor, who was Clerk to the Harbour Commissioners at Fraserburgh.

This gentleman added to his official duties those of Honorary Secretary of i the Institution at Fraserburgh. He was | appointed to this office as early as 1869, and during his long association with the Institution he rendered most excellent service to the cause, being presented with ' a binocular in 1887, and receiving the I decoration of the Institution in 1901.

Last year the Committee of Manage- ; ment decided, on the representation of Lord Saltoun and the Harbour Commissioners of Fraserburgh, to provide a | Motor Life-boat at this growing Port, I and the Commissioners are constructing a boathouse and slipway for the accommodation of the boat. Mr. Tarras had been carrying on the official negotiations between the Harbour Commis- . sioners and the Institution in respect of this important improvement, and it is greatly to be regretted that he has not lived to see the completion of the plan.

WE much regret to record the death of Mr. William Tregarthen Douglass, late Engineer and Architect of the Institution, and the son of Sir James Douglass, I himself a very distinguished engineer.

Mr. Douglass's death took place on August 10th, and it is a strange and sad circumstance that one who had been connected with the work of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION for twenty-five years past as its Engineer and Architect, and who was therefore brought into constant touch with Life- boat work from every point of view, should have lost his life by the capsizing of a boat in which he had gone for a sail with his son.

A sudden gust of wind caught the boat off Start Point, near Dartmouth, and she immediately sank. Both Mr. Douglass and his son kept afloat for nearly an hour by swimming, but eventually Mr. Douglass became exhausted and sank, his son being picked up shortly afterwards by a pleasure steamer. Mr. Douglass's body was not recovered for some days.

It is a curious fact that when, as Resident Engineer, he was engaged in the erection of the present Eddystone Lighthouse, Mr. Douglass narrowly escaped death from drowning. He was knocked off the top of what is known as Smeaton's Tower, and fell from a height of eighty feet to what appeared to be certain death but, at that moment, a great Atlantic wave swept over the rock at the base of the tower and caught him as he fell. He was easily rescued, but never forgot his narrow escape in such extraordinary circumstances.

Mr. Douglass had established a great reputation as an expert in the construction of lighthouses, harbour works, and ; sea defence works, and he was consulted with regard to the construction of light-houses by the Government of the Cape, New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, South America, the Mediterranean, China, and India. In connexion with the latter Dependency, he was appointed in 1899 to visit and report upon some ninety lighthouse stations in India and Burmah. His chief work, however, for the past twenty-five years, was that of Engineer and Architect to the Institution, and in this capacity he de-signed and executed the works required for the majority of the Life-boat stations round the coast. In the words of The Engineer of August 15th, " The work entailed the solution of numerous difficult problems, and anyone who has examined the stations, with their ex-tensive and solidly built launching ways, which have been constructed to his plans and under his direction, must have realized the skill and ingenuity which he displayed in them.".