Fund for the Life-boat House on the {lumber.

As all readers of The Lifeboat know, the city of Bradford has been conspicuously generous in its support of the Life-boat Service, and nowhere, on the coast or inland, has the Institution a better organized and more active Branch, or a more zealous body of workers.

During the last four years the Branch has contributed a yearly average of £2,800 to the general funds of the Service. In addition to this it raised a special fund of £10,000 to present the Institution with the Motor Life- boat now stationed on the Humber as a Centenary gift, making a total for the past six years of nearly £27,000.

No sooner was the Motor Life-boat fund completed at the end of 1922 than another fund was started for the pur- pose of paying for the Life-boat House and Winch on the Humber. It will be remembered also that Bradford had previously presented three Life-boats to the Institution, all of which were stationed at Ramsgate, the first in 1865.

Over 400 Workers.

In aid of the fund for the Boathouse, a three-days' Bazaar was held on March 10th, llth and 12th, in which the Lord Mayor (Alderman J. Stringer, J.P.), the Lady Mayoress, Sir William Priestley, J.P., Chairman of the Branch, and Lady Priestley took an active part. The Bazaar was decorated to represent Lucerne, there were sixteen stalls, including a restaurant and cafe, and between 400 and 500 ladies gave their services in organizing it.

On the first day Sir William Priestley presided, and the Bazaar was opened by Lord Barnby, supported by Mr.

George F. Shee, M.A., Secretary of the Institution, and the Archdeacon of Bradford. On the second day Sir Hastings Duncan presided, and Major H. E. Burton, O.B.E., R.E., Chairman of the Tynemouth Branch, Honorary Superintendent of the Motor Life-boat at Tynemouth, and a Gold Medallist of the Institution, opened the Bazaar. On the third day Councillor Victor Waddi- love presided, and the Lord Mayor of Bradford opened the Bazaar. On that day Robert Cross, the Coxswain of the Humber Motor Life-boat, City of Bradford, was to have attended in order to be pre- sented with the Bar to his Silver Medal awarded to him for the rescue of the crew of the s.s. Whinsione on the 25th November, 1925, but owing to bad weather on the coast he could not leave the Station.

In opening the Bazaar on the first day, Lord Barnby, who is eighty-five years of age, and has crossed the Atlantic one hun- dred times, gave some of his experiences of the sea, including a stormy passage from New York in 1911. " I remember," he said, " that one night the whole of the passengers stayed up. I shall never forget the sight—terrified women in tears, serious men in prayer, panic all round. Such recollections force on one's mind the immense usefulness of Life- boats." Major Burton's Reminiscences.

On the second day Major Burton gave some very interesting reminiscences of his work with the Motor Life-boat at Tynemouth. He recalled that when the McConnell Hussey was sent to Tyne- mouth in 1905, he found the longshore- men very suspicious of motors, and his first crew was formed of volunteers from his own company in the Royal Engineers.

He then described some of the services in which he had taken part, including the Rohilla Service in November, 1914, when the Tynemouth Motor Life-boat left the wreck with sixty-four people on board, including her own crew, and with '' the deck two inches under water.'' Maj or Burton went on: " Next morning a doctor, whose son had been one of the rescued, called to thank me for the' safety of his boy and the recovery of his wife, who had been prostrate with anxiety. I know now what that man'sfeelings must have been, for in the last gale this winter my own boy went down with his gallant crew, and the only trace of them that has been found is two life- buoys. It is a great consolation to me to know that at the hour when my lad's ship was sinking I was on duty with oar Life-boat Crew ready for any call for our help." The Bazaar aimed to raise £5.000, and the sum actually obtained was over £4,910.

The Committee of Management have elected Sir William Priestley a VicePresident of the Institution, and awarded the Institution's, Gold Badge to Mr.

E. V. Rushworth, the Branch Treasurer, who acted also as the Treasurer of the Bazaar, and for many years was Branch Honorary Secretary, in recognition of their long and distinguished services to the Institution. A number of other awards made to honorary workers at Brad- ford will be found in " Awards to Hono- rary Workers " elsewhere in this issue.

The spirit in which the work wasdone was the secret of the Bazaar's great success. In thanking the Com- mittee of Management for the Record of Thanks which they presented to her, Lady Priestley wrote: " We had such a fine band of workers. Such interest and hard work I have never seen in any bazaar I have ever been associated with. Such good feeling—every one all smiles. We really almost felt sorry when it was all over and we had to separate." A bazaar organized in that spirit could hardly fail..