CENTURY Life-boat Day was held on 20th May, in nearly eighty of the main boroughs and urban districts of Greater London, and the Institution had the generous help of both the Duke and Louise, Duchess of Argyll, Patron of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild. Last year, on Prince of Wales' Day for the Lifeboats, the Prince drove round the East End and South London, visiting the chief dep6ts. This year the Duke and Duchess of York made a tour of Kensington, Fulham, the City, and the West End, and this year, as last, the Princess Louise visited the depots in Kensington.

In the City the appeal was organized by the Duchess of Norfolk, President of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild, helped by Mrs. Alington. Among those who col- lected in the City was Captain Lawson Smith, the diver. This is the second year in succession that he has helped on London Life-boat Day, and, once again, he collected in his diving dress.

In Acton, Chelsea, Paddington, Dept- ford, Fulham, Greenwich, Shoreditch, sey, Lambeth, Wandsworth, Baling, Richmond and Stoke Newington, the appeal was either directly organized the Mayor or Mayoress, or with their active help, and in the West End the theatrical companies appearing at Daly's, the Strand, and the Hippodrome had depots outside their theatres. Among the many who helped as organizers or collectors were:—Lady Baring, The Dowager Lady Queensberry, The Lady Florence Pery, The Lady Brownlow, Lady Fisher, The Dowager Lady Raglan, The Hon. Mrs. Seely, Lady Struthers, Mrs. Austin Farleigh, Lady White, Miss Silvester and Mrs. Cecil Harmsworth.

In view of the fact that it was the Centenary Year of the Institution, the First Commissioner of Works gave special permission for Life-boats to be stationed in public places. Two were in Trafalgar Square, one at Finchley, and one at Brixton, and on board each boat was a Coxswain from a South Coast Station—all four men with long and distinguished records in the Service. At Brixton was Coxswain W. Blann, of Worthing, who has served in theWorthing Boat for thirty years. At Finchley was Coxswain W. Hammond, of Walton-on-the-Naze, who was awarded the Silver Medal of the Institution during the War when, in December 1917, the Walton Life-boat rescued ninety-two lives from the s.s. Peregrine, of London.

Both the Coxswains in Trafalgar Square were also Silver Medallists.

Coxswain Clayson, of Margate, who won the Medal in 1905 for rescuing the crew of a ketch wrecked in a whole gale twenty-three miles away, and Coxswain T. W. Read, of Ramsgate, who won his medal as Second Coxswain in 1916, forthe gallant but unsuccessful attempts of the Ramsgate Boat to rescue the crew of the s.s. Sibiria, of New York—ulti- mately rescued by the North Deal Life- boat—which was wrecked on the Good- win Sands in one of the heaviest gales ever experienced on that stormy coast.

The Day raised a sum of £5,675.

This includes the result of the day at Kingston-on-Thames, which took place on 20th September, and is a slight increase on the amount collected in the streets on Prince of Wales' Day last year ; but a much larger number of people contributed, for while the total was nearly the same, there was a much greater proportion of copper and small silver coins. This interesting fact has been noticeable not in London only, and not only this year. The public support on which the Institution is based is wider than ever. There have never before been so many contributing to its funds, but everywhere the effect of post-war conditions is noticeable in smaller con- tributions..