THE 28th September of this year was the centenary of the death of William Wouldhave, of South Shields, whose name will always be honourably remem- bered, with those of Lionel Lukin, of London, and John Greathead, also of South Shields, as one of the three men to whom we owe the modern Life-boat.

There was controversy at the time, and it was revived again over fifty years later, with regard to the respective claims of the three. But it is enough now that we remember them all with gratitude—Lukin as the man who first, in this country, tackled the problem of making boats, to use his own word, " unimmergible," and as the father of the buoyant non-self-righting Sailing Life-boat, the type still most popular on the East Coast ; Wouldhave as the discoverer of the self-righting principle, and Greathead as the actual builder of the first Life-boat, the Original, which was launched at Tynemouth in 1789.

It is not the least interesting circum- stance in the birth of the Life-boat that, of these three men, only one was in any way connected with the sea. Greathead was a boat-builder, but Wouldhave was a house-painter, and became the parish clerk of the parish church of St. Hilda, in South Shields; while Lukin was a coach- builder, becoming Master of the Worship- j ful Company of Coach-makers in 1793. [ South Shields is rightly proud of the j part taken by her citizens in the work of the Life-boat Service, and has cele- brated the centenary of Woodhave's death by erecting a new headstone on his grave in St. Hilda's churchyard, the old having begun to crumble away.

A sum of money has also been left by a citizen of South Shields, the late Mr. John Hinde, to be used for keeping the grave always covered with flowers.

The ceremony took place on the 2nd October, the first Sunday after the anni- versary day. The Mayors of South Shields and Tynemouth went in pro- cession from the Town Hall to St.

Hilda's Church, where a special memorial service was held, and the new headstone was then unveiled.

Wouldhave died as he had lived, a poor man. There was no self-interest in his efforts to invent a Life-boat. He was moved only by his desire to prevent some of the terrible and familiar scenes of shipwreck at the mouth of the Tyne, just as, over thirty years later, Sir William Hillary, moved by similar scenes in Douglas Bay, made his famous appeal to his countrymen for a National Life- boat Service. The story is told of Wouldhave that, when he submitted his model, in response to a public offer of a reward for the best Life-boat design, he was offered only half the promised sum, as the Committee were not entirely satisfied with his, or any of the plans submitted. He refused to take only half, and handed the money back ; but, in spite of his own feeling of anger, and in spite of the remonstrances of his friends, he left his model with the Committee, knowing, as he said, that they would have the sense to adopt its good points, and certain that, though he went unrewarded, he would " be instrumental in saving the lives of some of his fellow-creatures." It was not until sixty-two years later that the self-righting principle, which was his great discovery, was actually used in a Life-boat; but to-day, of the Institu- tions fleet of 243 Life-boats, nearly 150 are self-righters. He has indeed been " instrumental " in saving the lives, not of " some," but of many thousands, of his fellow-men and women.

His character is clearly written on il the bust which is in the Public Museum at South Shields. It is a fine, indeed a beautiful face, full of sensitiveness, intellect, character, and, one would say, suffering also. The new stone on his grave bears the same words that were inscribed on the old. They are not unworthy of him :— "Heaven genius scientifiek gave Surpassing vulgar boast, yet he, from soil So rich, no golden harvest reap'd, no wreath Of laurel gleaned, none but the sailor's heart, Nor that ingrate, a palm unfading this, Till shipwrecks cease, or Life-boats cease to save.".