BEFORE Mr. Gardiner became Honorary Secretary of the Campbeltown Branch, he had had an adventurous career in many parts of the world. He was the second son of Sheriff Gardiner, and began his career in the office of a big Glasgow firmof shipowners and brokers. But he was of a character that asked for some- thing more strenuous and adventurous in life than the work of an office. After a few years in Glasgow he went to Canada, where he took up farm- ing in Manitoba.

MR. J. A He had always been fond of sail- ing, and after five years of farming he left Manitoba to ship before the mast. The next ten years of his life he spent at sea, almost entirely aboard sailing ships.

In that time he rose to the position of acting Chief Officer, and then, in 1894, for family reasons, he left the sea. After fifteen years abroad he settled down at home, and since that time has devoted himself to the business of the family estate of Kildalloig, in Argyllshire, near Campbeltown.

Five years after he returned home he became Joint Honorary Secretary, with the Rev. C. T. Wakeham, of the Life-boat Stations at Campbeltown and Southend ; and from 1907 until the present year, when a second Honorary Secretary was appointed to help him, chiefly with the clerical work, he has been in sole charge of all the financial and administrative work of the Branch.

In 1912 a Motor Life-boat was sent to Campbeltown, in place of the Pulling and Sail- ing Boat already there, and in the same year a Station was opened at Machri- hanish under the control of the Ca mpb e 1 town Branch. Mr. Gar- diner, therefore, for the past ten years has admin- istered three Life- boat Stations for the Institution.

During that time the Life-boats have been launched on many useful services, have rescued nearly fifty lives, and saved three vessels.

Mr. Gardiner has been equally successful in de- veloping the financial side of the Branch. When he became Honorary Secretary its income from local subscriptions and donations was only £30. Last year the Branch raised nearly £200.

As one would expect of such a man, he has not been satisfied only to do the administrative work. Hardly an exercise of any of the Boats under his care has taken place when he was not on board, and on fifteen occasions he has gone out on service. He holds a Norwegian medal, presented to him and to each member of the crew of the Canipbeltown Boat, which went out, in February 1903, to the help of the barque Argo, of Frederikstad. She had been driven ashore in a whole gale, with a very heavy sea, on the rocks known as the Arranman's Barrels, on the south-east coast of Kintyre. Her hull was nearly under water and her crew were in the rigging. A few minutes after they had been rescued the barque went to pieces. Mr. Gardiner was also presented, in 1908, with a pair of Binoculars, in recognition of his services to the In- stitution.

He is a keen yachtsman, and a familiar figure on the lower reaches of the Clyde during the Clyde Fortnight. Here, also, he has saved life. In the middle of a race he jumped into the sea from his yacht and rescued a man who had fallen overboard from another of the competing yachts.

Mr. Gardiner has brought to the work of the Branch not only a wide and practical experience of the sea, gained in the hardest of seafaring schools, but the abundant energy and enthusiasm, which are characteristic of him. One has only to meet him and talk with him for a few minutes to realise why it is that he commands the ready and affec- tionate service of all those who work with him for the Life-boat Cause ; and his vigorous but unconventional style as a correspondent is a delight to the officials of the Institution.

No Life-boat worker, indeed, has given the Institution more generous and unstinted service, nor brought to that service more valuable gifts of experience and character..