THIS summer two of the Institution's Life-boat Stations have celebrated their centenaries, Boulmer, in Northumberland, and Appledore, on the north coast of Devon. Boulmer was the first of the Institution's Stations in Northumberland,but in 1786, forty-one years before the Boulmer Station was opened, the first Boat intended expressly for saving life from shipwreck had been placed at Bamburgh, serving there for several years, in 1789 the first permanent Lifeboat Station had been established at Tynemouth, and the Station at Blyth, Manage which was taken over by the Institution in 1826, had been in existence a number of years before the Boulmer Station was established.

Since 1909, Boulmer and Alnmouth, where a Station was established in 1853, have formed one Branch, with one Honorary Secretary, but each is a separate Station with its own Life-boat.During the century there have been six Life-boats at Boulmer, of which the present Boat, Arthur R. Dawes, went to the Station in 1911, and the Station's record is 196 lives rescued.

In a foreword to the programme of the celebrations, Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., Chairman of the Committee of Management, paid a tribute to the work of the Station." Boulmer was one of the very first Life-boat Stations to be established by THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTI- TUTION, and it has an unbroken record of a hundred years of service to humanity.

During that time many gallant rescues have been carried out, and never has the call to the Life-boatmen been in vain.

" The earliest service to which atten- tion is called in the records of the Institution was in June, 1830, when the Master and three seamen of the sloop Helen were rescued, James Addisonbeing then Coxswain of the Life-boat.

In recent years, perhaps the most con- spicuous service is that to the steam- trawler Tadorne, of Boulogne, on 29th March, 1913, when twenty-five men of the crew were rescued. Coxswain William Stephenson gained the Silver Medal of the Institution by this service, and the Gold Medal and Diploma of the French Government, and two Medals and the Diploma of the Breton Life- saving Society were received.

" Life-boatmen everywhere on the coast are distinguished for long and faithful service, and the Boulmer Station in this respect need not fear comparison with others. It will be sufficient to mention Bartholomew Stephenson, who in 1866 received the Silver Medal on retirement, after forty years' service; Penment Stephenson and Andrew Stan- ton, whose services of thirty-three and thirty-two years respectively, as Cox- swain and Second Coxswain, were recog- nized on their retirement in 1898 ; and William Stephenson, who was an Officer of the Boat from 1890-1922.

" From the first years of the Station the women of Boulmer have taken part in the dangerous and exhausting work of launching the Life-boat, and their fine spirit and endurance are an example to all.

" The valour of the Crews and Launchers has been rivalled by the generosity of the people of Boulmer and Alnmouth, who from the earliest days of their Stations have contributed freely towards the upkeep of the] Life-boats and the general funds of the Insti- tution.

" The Committee of Management con- gratulate the Alnmouth and Boulmer Committee, the Crews and Helpers, and all generous sympathizers on the fine record of the Station, and, in thanking them all for what has been done, feel confident that Boulmer will continue to maintain its Life-boat Station in accord-ance with the highest traditions of the ' Chivalry of the Sea.' " The centenary was celebrated on 19th August, by a demonstration of life-saving in which the Pulling and Sailing Life- boats of Boulmer and Alnmouth and the Motor Life-boat of Holy Island took part, going to the rescue of an oil-tanker on fire, a demonstration of the use of the Line-throwing Gun, a Bazaar, a Concert and then a Dance. The following weeks full account of the day was broadcasted from Newcastle at the children's time for listening-in, by one of the " Uncles " who had attended the celebrations.

These celebrations were organized by the Honorary Secretary, Mr. H. B.

Stephenson, with the generous help of Mrs. G. Middlemiss and the Ladies' Committee. Special travelling arrange- ments had been made, cheap railway tickets issued, and leaflets printed with particulars of them, with the result that some 3,000 visitors came from all parts of North Northumberland. The whole village was decorated with Sags, and" Never," said the Alnwick and County Gazette and Guardian, " was there such a crowd, such enthusiasm and such a programme " in Boulmer.

A centenary address was delivered by the Right Hon. the Viscount Grey of Fallodon, K.G., to a large audience from an open-air platform outside the Memo- rial Hall, in which the Bazaar was held, and after the address, Lord Grey pre- sented Life-boatmen's Certificates ofService which the Institution had awarded to the following members of the Crew who had retired: William Stephenson, forty years' service ; Robert Nasan Stephenson, thirty-five years' service ; John Stephenson, thirty years' service; Thomas Stephenson, thirty years' service.

At this ceremony the Chair was taken by Mr. Arthur Scholefield, J.P., Chair- man of the Alnmouth and Boulmer Branch. The Bazaar itself was opened by Lady Grey, who was presented by the daughter of the Coxswain, Miss Nellie Stephenson, not with the usual bouquet,but with a fisherwoman's basket con- taining a 7-lb. salmon caught that morning by her father.

The Memorial Hall was hung with I pictures and relics of Life-boat work at Boulmer, and in a field outside were side-shows and a marquee where over a i thousand people had tea. Altogether £527 was made by the Bazaar and Fete, j In the course of his address, Lord Grey said :— " Seaborne commerce has been and still is the foundation of the greatness of the British Isles. Without our seaborne commerce we should not have had one-third of the population we have to-day, or one-third of the prosperity and wealth and power that Great Britain has achieved in the history of the world. So that you see all the traffic on the sea that comes around our shores is closely connected with the very foundation of our prosperity and large population. If that be so, is it not fitting and right, a moral obligation and a duty, that around our coast we should have an institution to help and rescue those who, by the hazards of the sea, are shipwrecked on our coast ? That has been done by THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITU- TION (applause). We have had pre- eminently in this country, as we ought to have, an efficient organization all | around our coast for extending help and rescue to those who may be ship-wrecked. That has been done in a manner so efficient and so public- spirited, that we are rightly proud of it.

" It has been done not by Govern- ment. It has been done without any pecuniary assistance from the Govern- ment, without any organization from the Government—it has been done by the pervading local energy and public spirit. It has been done, in other words, by private enterprise and voluntary service. There are many things in this country that have been done by private enterprise and voluntary service. The British Empire does not owe its exist-ence to Government agency, but to the unofficial enterprise and energy of the British people who spread themselves over the world.

" In the same way, our Life-boat Institution, which has been so successful and efficient, has been the result not of Government help, but of private enter- prise. That is the reason why we should be proud of it.

" In these days when there is so much talk of the Government managing every- thing I still hold to this—that where a thing can be efficiently managed and instituted by private enterprise and voluntary service, it is better done than if it were done by Government agency (applause).

" There are some things which must be done by the Government. The Army and Navy must be under one central authority, and we must look to Govern- ment agency and policy to manage them.

But that is all the more reason that when a thing can be successfully done volun- tarily without Government help, it should be done. And the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION is pre- eminently one of those things which has been efficiently done, and which, I trust, will always be done by local effort and j voluntary service.

i | Advantages of the Voluntary System.

i " There are three advantages, of i which I think THE NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION is an example, of voluntary '. local work as compared with Govern- ment agency. We have thousands of miles of coast, and it is a very big work I to provide Life-boat Stations all round j I that coast. Well, it has been done, and | j the annual cost of it is about £250,000.

If it had been left to the Government j to do—the Government never does' anything under a million a year at least (laughter). Probably more. That is one j advantage—it is being done more cheaply.

| " But that is not the most important advantage. It is being done with a maximum of harmony and good-will and good spirit among all connected with it.

Whenever you come to the question of Government agency and employers and employed you get friction and want of harmony. THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE- BOAT INSTITUTION being purely volun- tary is an example not only of work which is done efficiently, but work which is done with the greatest amount of harmony and good-will and .good spirit, and no friction on the part of any- body connected with it.

" Another advantage is this—that precisely because it is voluntary, Life- boat Branches in every part of the country are proud of their Life-boat, proud of their Branch, proud of their Crews, because they are their own—the result of their work, their own effort, their own good-will. And that is what we are having an experience of to-day (applause).

" The Alnmouth and Boulmer Branch of the Life-boat Institution is justly and rightly proud of itself and more proud of itself than it would have been if it had been part of a Government concern, simply because it knows that its work is due, and its organization and all that it does are due to its own public spirit and its own effort." After paying a tribute to the men and women of Boulmer, the Crew and Launchers of the Life-boat, Lord Grey went on to say :— " You have all been thinking no doubt of this Life-boat Service as a gallant Service. There is one further aspect of it which appeals to me. It is called a ' National' Service, and it is a National Service, but it is a Service which is rendered without distinction of nation- ality. If a foreign ship is wrecked, the same qualities of courage and self sacrifice are shown as if it were a British ship. It is a Service which is not limited to national ends ; it is a real Service to humanity at large.

" The Life-boat Service is one of those instances of how common peril brings all men together with a sense of human- ity. If only we could have through all national affairs and through all inter- national affairs that sort of spirit which distinguishes the Life-boat Service—all people feeling that in the interest of common humanity what they needed most to-day was to help each other- then instead of fighting each other the world would very nearly have approached the millennium (hear, hear)." Appledore, Devon.

Appledore is the oldest of the Life- boat Stations on the North Devon coast.

On the South Devon coast, the Ply- mouth Station was also established in 1825. Moreover, Appledore is a very important Station, being the only one between Land's End and the coast of South Wales at which there is a Motor Life-boat.

There were at one time three Stations at Appledore, but one was closed in 1897, and another in 1919. It was in 1922 that the Station was provided with a Motor Life-boat.

The records of the earliest Appledore Life-boats and of the lives rescued are uncertain, but it is on record that in 1829 Silver Medals were awarded to three Appledore men, Owen Smith, William Brinksmead, and Philip Grey, for rescuing eleven passengers and the crew of the sloop Daniel. There have been fifteen or sixteen Life-boats at Appledore, and the number of lives rescued since 1850 is 211.

One of the most famous services in the long history of the Appledore Station was the service to the Austrian barque Pace in December, 1869, and no service has ever shown more clearly the splendid staunchness of the Life-boatmen of Devon. The full story is told in THE LIFEBOAT for January, 1870. At one in the morning of December 28th, Coxswain Joseph Cox was informed by the Coast Guard that two vessels were in danger of going ashore. The Life-boat Hope was taken along the shore, following the Pace, as she tried to beat out of the bay, for of the two vessels she appeared to be in the greater danger. She grounded, and the Life-boat was launched into a terrific surf. " At times she was as up- right as a ladder against a wall, and seas swept through her from stem to stern," but the crew stuck to it, reached the barque, and made fast to her. Except, however, for one boy who ran to the side and dropped into the Life-boat, it was five minutes before any of the crew would stir from the shelter of the cuddy.

Then eight of them made a rush, jumped over the side, missed the Life- boat, and fell into the sea. They were picked up one by one. A tremendous sea then drove the Life-boat under the counter of the barque and carried away the rudder. The Coxswain was jammed against the counter so violently that his life-belt was broken. It saved him from serious injury, but he was badly bruised.The remainder of the crew of the barque would not stir, and the Life-boat returned ashore, and landed the nine rescued men. Then the Coxswain, al- though he himself was injured and the Boat was damaged and rudderless, called for a second crew. Once more the Boat was launched, the Coxswain, his son and one other member of the first crew going with her. As there was no rudder, young Cox steered with an oar, i and when the Life-boat had nearly j reached the wreck a wave swept him 1 right over the stern. The Boat broached i to and the next wave rolled her over, throwing all the crew into the surf. She righted herself, all managed to get aboard her again, and she returned to the shore with only three oars. A third crew came forward at once to man her, and horsemen dashed off for spare oars.

But by now the tide had turned, and | had already dropped two feet. In a little time it would be possible to reach | the wreck by wading to her, and " those on the spot most rightly interfered and would not allow the Boat to be launched again, although there were four distinct : crews of volunteers." Such was and is the spirit of the men of Appledore.

The record of the present Committee of the Station is remarkable. The Chairman, Captain Prideaux-Brune, has served on it for twenty-nine years.

The President, the Rev. J. W. White, comes next with twenty-eight years of service. The Honorary Secretary, Mr.

H. C. Whitehead, has served for twenty- four years; Captain Mead for the same period, and Dr. Valentine for twenty- postthree years. That is a total of 128 years of service for five members of the Committee. We understand that Appledore challenges other Stations to beat that if they can.

The Centenary celebrations were held on 18th August. The programme started with a Life-boat Day, whichraised the record sum of £120, postthree cards of the Life-boat and Crew being well sold as emblems.

as the usual Life-boat In the evening there was a! civic procession from the Town Hall to the river bank, near the Quay Flagstaff.

It was headed by the Town Band, followed by the Fire Brigade and the ; Church Lads' Brigade. Then came the mace-bearers, and the Mayor of Bide- ford, in his robes and chain of office, and he was followed by the aldermen and councillors, magistrates and members of the Life-boat Committee. A religious service was held at the river-side, con- ducted by the Rector (the Rev. W. N.

Manning) and the Rev. J. T. Halstead of the Wesleyan Church, and short addresses were delivered by the Mayor (Er. E. J. Toye), the Mayor of Torring- ton (Mr. G. M. Doe), the Chairman of the Northam Urban District Council (Major-GeneralSir J. M. Irwin, K.C.M.G., and the Vicar of Appledore (Rev. Hugh C. A. S. Muller).

After the ceremony the Life-boat carried out a rescue from a barge, there was a demonstration of the Rocket Life- saving Apparatus, and the Bideford Swimming Club gave an exhibition of rescuing from drowning.

The Mayor, after speaking of the record of the Station, referred to the work of that hard-working body—the Branch Committee, and gave the par- ticulars quoted above. Their Station was thoroughly efficient. Their financial support of the Institution was generous, and he felt that their Branch had con- tributed in no small degree to the high prestige in which the Life-boat Service was held. If any attempt were made to nationalize it, he was sure it would lead to disaster.

The Mayor of Torrington said that he came from a small town, and an inland town, where they could not see the actual work of the Service. But their sympathies with it were just as great asif they were by the sea. And that sympathy was found all over England, even in the centre of the country.

Everywhere there was an interest in the Life-boat Service, and in the churches prayers were said, and hymns were sung for those in peril on the sea.

Major-General Irwin spoke of the example which England had set to other countries. Every Englishman must be proud, not only of the record of the Service, but of the fact that it was an Englishman who had brought into being the first Life-boat Service to be estab- lished in any country.

The Rev. Hugh Muller spoke of the successive generations of Appledore sailors who had manned the Life-boats, the unknown men who had manned the earliest Life-boats, and whom that day they remembered with gratitude, and the later Life-boatmen whose names they knew, such Coxswains as the two Joseph Coxes, Philip Hutchings, John Berry, Robert Batten and George Hamer, and on the north side such men ' as James Smallridge and William Jen- kins. Once Robert Batten had told him, after they had been out in the Life-boat , together, that he had only to call for a j second crew, and he would get it at once, The religious service was followed by a Centenary Concert at the Gaiety Cinema, which the proprietor had lent to the Branch. The chief feature of it.

was a tableau, " Warriors of the Sea," arranged by Mr. Alfred Green. The first j part of the tableau showed the wreck, the launch, the rescue and the return, the Life-boat Crew coming on in their full service-dress. In the second part of | the tableau Mr. Green gave a brief history of the Station. As it was told, the scene was filled with a cenotaph, on which were laid two wreaths, one in memory of the Life-boatmen of Apple- dore whose names were known and remembered, the other in memory of the unknown men who had manned the Life-boat at the beginning of the century.

A number of other Stations have just completed, or will shortly complete, their centuries. Newhaven, which held a Centenary Dinner early in the year, Skegness, Plymouth and Holyhead, all complete the century this year. Blythe, Dungeness, Lyme Regis and Arklow will complete it in 1926. It is to be hoped that they will all celebrate the event with as much enthusiasm and success as Boulmer and Appledore.