THE records of Life-boat families which have been appearing in The Lifeboat show how strong a part the influence of heredity plays in the manning of the Institution's boats. It is of interest, too, to record that the new Honorary Secretary of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild at Winchester, Miss Bostock, is a descendant of Lionel Lukin, the London coach-builder who in 1786 converted a coble into the first Lifeboat stationed on our coasts, at Bamburgh, Northumberland, and who built the first Sailing Life-boat in 1807; that at Ardrishaig, in Argyllshire, a great - grand - niece of Sir William Hillary, the Institution's founder, has joined the Guild, and that a great-granddaughter of Hillary has offered to help in forming a Branch at Hertford..