Mr. W. Fortescue Barratt, the Honorary Secretary of the Civil Service Life-boat Fund, died suddenly on March 26th last, at the age of 73. He had spent the greater part of his life as a civil servant in the Exchequer and Audit Department of the Admiralty, retiring in 1915 but being re-engaged for the remainder of the war. He found time also to take part in many philanthropic works, including the Drury Lane Working Girls' Home, the Waifs and Strays Society, and the Civil Service Benevolent Fund, as well as the work of the London Diocesan Council. Last, but not least, he was for thirteen years the Honorary Secretary of the Civil Service Life-boat Fund. He undertook the work early in 1914, and it remained one of his chief interests up to the day of his death. To this woik he devoted that scrupulous attention to every detail of what he did, which was so characteristic of him as a civil servant and as a man.

The Fund was started in 1866, and by the end of last year it had contributed over £74,000, out of which seven Lifeboats have been built and endowed.

During Mr. Fortescue Barratt's thirteen years as its Honorary Secretary, over £20,000 was contributed for the maintenance of the Civil Service Life-boats, and in addition enough was raised to build a new Motor Life-boat, making a total of just over £29,000. This Motor Life-boat is stationed at Margate, and is named The Lord SouiKborough after the Chairman of the Fund. The Naming Ceremony took place in September, 1925, and this was one of the last Life-boat functions which Mr. Fortescue Barratt attended. At the funeral Mr.

George F. Shee, the Secretary, represented the Institution, which will gratefully remember Mr. Fortescue Barratt's thirteen years of devoted and fruitful work for the Life-boat Service..