NOWHERE on the coast of Scotland, or, indeed, on the coasts of the British Isles, has the Institution an Honorary Secre- tary who has worked harder and more successfully for the cause than Mr. Bertram at Dunbar.

For thirty-five years he has been associated with the work of the Dunbar Station.

The first nine years he was the Assistant Honorary Secretary ; f o r the past twenty-six years he has been the Honorary Secretary, and for fift e e n of those twenty-six years he has also been Honorary Secretary of the Skateraw Station, which was established in 1907, as the result of representations which he made to the Institution. He particuwas also responsible for the establishment, of the St. Abb's Head Station in 1911.: he is When practice launches. During his Honorary Secretaryship the two boats have been of which he acted as Joint Honorary Secretary for several years, and of which still a member of Committee.

Mr. Bertram became Honorary Secretary at Dunbar the Station was in a far from satisfactory state, and that it is now one of the most efficient on the coast is due in very great measure to his energetic and skilful administration.

He never spares himself; he gives to the work of both stations his constant and daily attention. Moreover, on many occasions he has been out in the Life-boat, not only on practice, but on service, and in the course of twentyfive years has only missed three of thelaunched on service forty-six times, and have saved over 100 lives.

Mr. Bertram has also done much to develop the financial side of the Branch. The year before he became Honorary Secretary the subscript i o n s to the Branch amounted to just £10, and the whole of its revenue to £18.

In 1921 it had a subscription list of £44, and raised altogether £228.

One typical instance may be given of the practical energy which he has devoted to his work. He is the son-in-law of the late Captain S. B. Wilkins, for many years Fire Master of Edinburgh, and he him- self went through a course of training with the brigade. He studied, in particuwas lar. the brigade's methods for turning out quickly. The experience thus obtained he adapted to Life-boat work, and put the crew through a course of training, with the result that the Dunbar Boat can now be launched in three and a quarter minutes, while the Skateraw Boat is in the water, on an average, forty-five minutes after the firing of the gun, although, when it is called out, both crew and beachmen have to be taken from Dunbar, a distance of four and a half miles. It should also be mentioned that Mr. Bertram has further increased the efficiency of the two Stations by having the coxswains, second coxswains and bowmen taught semaphore signalling.

Mr. Bertram is a man of many I activities, and has devoted himself, inparticular, to the welfare of Scottish fishermen. In 1888 he became Honorary Central Secretary of the East Coast Fisheries Association, and held this post until 1918, his work during the war being specially onerous, as all fishing on the east coast of Scotland was suspended by Admiralty order, and thousands of fishermen, thrown suddenly out of work, had to be drafted into new employment—with the fleet, at the dockyards, and even in mines and on farms. During the War, as Secretary of this Association, Mr. Bertram served on the Food Control Board in London.

In 1919 a new body, the Scottish Drift Net and Line Fishermen's Asso- ciation, was formed, into which all existing fishermen's organisations were merged, and Mr. Bertram was appointed its Central Secretary, refusing, however, the salary which was offered. He had given his services for thirty years, and he preferred to continue to work without reward.

For many years Mr. Bertram has been a representative on the Haddingtonshire and Berwickshire coasts of the Royal Humane Society and on the Carnegie Hero Trust in connexion with the grant of rewards for rescues from drowning. He is Honorary Agent for the Shipwrecked Mariners' Society, has been Chairman of the Institute of Journalists for Edinburgh and the East of Scotland, and for twenty-two years was an office bearer in the Dunbar Wesleyan Church. He has been a Justice of the Peace since 1915, and has twice been asked to stand as a parlia- mentary candidate for Scottish fishing constituencies. These invitations he was compelled, by his many other activities, to refuse.

Mr. Bertram has received many presentations and rewards in recognition of his public services. In 1900 the Institution presented him with an I Aneroid Barometer, in appreciation of { the help which he gave when the Dunbar Life-boat rescued twenty-four of the crew of the barque Ecclefechan, which had stranded on Skateraw Point, and in 1905 he received a pair of Binoculars as a mark of the Institution's I gratitude for his " long and valuable j co-operation " in the work of the Life- boat Service. In 1888 he was presented with a silver salver by the Haddington- shire Humane Society ; in 1902, at a public dinner in Dunbar, with a marble clock, by the town ; in 1905 with a silver cigarette case by the crews of the Dunbar and Skateraw Life-boats, and in 1913 with a service of gold plate and an illuminated address by the Dunbar and Skateraw Branch, its Life-boat crews, and the fishermen, beachmen and coastguard on the Haddingtonshire coast. Mr. Bertram, who has helped to save many lives from drowning apart from his Life-boat work, holds the medal and diploma of the Royal Life-Saving Society..