MAJOR ARTHUR THOMAS FISHER founded the Salisbury Branch of the Institution in 1910, has been its Honorary Secretary ever since, and is still its Honorary Secretary at the great age of eighty.

Born on May Day in 1843, he is the son of Mr. T. R.

Fisher, M.R.C.S., of Frewen Hall, Oxford, his mother being a daughter of Mr. Charles Tawney, of Oxford, and previously of Burcot House, Oxon. Major Fisher was educated at Harrow, during the headmastership of Dr. 0. J. Vaughan, and after, as he says himself," having tried the patience of various tutors for three years," passed for the army.

He was gazetted first to the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Queen's Royal Regiment, but later exchanged to the cavalry, joining his regiment, the 21st Hussars, at Lucknow in 1870. He got his troop eight years later, and retired in 1883.

Since then Major Fisher has lived in Hampshire, devoting a long and active life to sport and public work. He has also been a contributor to many magazines, and is the author of four books, all on sporting subjects, " Through the Stable and Saddle Room," " The Farrier," " Rod and River " and " Outdoor Life in England." For the last twenty-eight years Major Fisher has lived near Salisbury. For over twenty years he was the Honorary Secretary of the Salisbury Museum, for seventeen years Honorary Secretary to the Wilton Hunt, and for many years Honorary Treasurer to the Soldiers' Welfare Board. The Institution was very fortunate when, in 1910, it was decided to form a Salisbury Branch, in obtaining the help of one so well known in the public life of Salisbury, and already so fully occupied with honorary work. How fortunate it was may be judged from the progress which the Branch has made under Major Fisher's direction during its thirteen years' existence. In 1910 it raised £73 for the Life-boat Cause, and in 1921 £398. Moreover, the Branch gives every promise of still further increasing its support, for it has a flourishing Ladies' Life-boat Guild, which was formed last year, and this year has carried out a very big fete (an account of it is given in News from the Branches) which has raised a large sum.

We are very glad in this, the first number of The Life-Boat published since Major Fisher's eightieth birthday, to acknowledge the debt which the Institution owes to his long and generous help.