Retirement from the Post of Chief Inspector.

ON 14th August Captain Howard F. J.

Rowley, C.B.E., E.N., to the great regret of the Committee of Manage- ment and the officers and staff of the Institution, retired from the post of Chief Inspector of Life-boats, which he had held for eleven years. He had already passed the retiring age by two years, but had continued in the post at the special request of the Committee.

Captain Rowley, who was then a Lieutenant serving on H.M. Yacht Osborne, as navigating officer, retired from the Navy in 1902, and in the same year entered the service of the Institution as a District Inspector of Life-boats. He was stationed first in the Western and then in the Northern District, and in 1909 became Deputy Chief Inspector. On the outbreak of War, five years later, Captain Rowley (then a Commander) returned to the Navy. He was entrusted with the important task of establishing a naval base at Inverness, which dealt with the distribution of officers and ratings, stores and mails to the Grand Fleet.

It was a post calling for great organis- ing ability. Here Captain Rowley served throughout the War as Senior Naval Officer, Divisional Transport Officer and Naval Representative for the North of Scotland Special Military Area. He was promoted Captain for his services, and made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He also received the American Distinguished Service Medal. In 1919 Captain Rowley re- turned to the Institution as Chief Inspector of Life-boats.

His twenty-eight years' service with the Institution have coincided with the period of its most important develop- ments. When he joined the Service the whole Fleet (except for four Steam Life-boats) depended on oars and sails.

Two years later the first experiments were made with Life-boats in which petrol engines had been installed. In 1909 the first two Life-boats built for motor-power were completed, and Cap- tain Rowley, as District Inspector for the Northern District, took them to their Stations at Stromness and Stron- say. When he returned to the Institu- tion as Chief Inspector in 1919 there were nineteen Motor Life-boats on the coast. All construction had neces- sarily been suspended during the War.

Upon him devolved the chief respon- sibility of resuming construction in the face of high costs and many difficulties with material and labour, of continu- ing the development of the Motor Life-boat, and of ensuring that Motor Life-boats should be stationed where they would be most effective.

Progress since 1919.

During the eleven years of his Chief Inspectorship, the number of Motor Life-boats has increased from nineteen to eighty-eight. In the same time great developments have been made. At the end of the War motor-power was strictly auxiliary. Motor Life-boats still carried a full complement of sails, and were designed to have the same sailing powers as the Pulling and Sailing Life-boats.

With the coming of the boats with two engines and twin-screws, the first of which was built in 1923, the Motor Life- boat became primarily and essentially dependent on its engines.

During these years also the first of the Cabin Life-boats has been built; new and improved engines have been designed to meet the special and stringent needs of the Service; Motor Caterpillar Tractors have been adopted for launch- ing Life-boats; a Line-throwing Gun has been designed; a new type of Motor Life-boat, light enough to be launched off the open beach, has been planned and built, thus enabling motor- power to be used at many Stations where it had before been impossible ; and finally the special fast Motor Life- boat, stationed at Dover for the pro- tection of aeroplane as well as steamer traffic, has been built. All these develop- ments, now successfully accomplished, have meant prolonged experiments, anxiety, and temporary failures to be overcome. They have made the late Chief Inspector's years of office very difficult and strenuous years, but he has given to the work his whole energy and devotion, and from his retirement he can look back upon them with the satisfaction and pride of knowing that what was still little more than a small experimental equipment of motor- power when he became Chief Inspector, has been transformed into a Motor Life-boat Fleet in being, with Motor Life-boats of different types, to suit the differing conditions of the coast, stationed at nearly all the important points round Great Britain and Ire- land.

The Board of Trade expressed to the Institution its appreciation of " the efforts which have been made in the past by Captain Rowley to establish and maintain close and cordial relations with the Chief Inspecting Officers of His Majesty's Coastguard Service, which have resulted in great benefit to the Life-saving Service as a whole." The North and South Holland Life- saving Society made a presentation to him which fitly recognised the part he has taken in establishing closer rela- tions between the Life-boat Services of different countries. His colleagues and the staff of the Institution showed their esteem and regret by presenting him with a silver salver and silver rose-bowl, and the presentation was made in the presence of a large number of the officers and staff of the Institu- tion. The Committee of Management have placed on record their own feelings and the feelings of all connected with the Life-boat Service in the following resolution:— " That the most cordial thanks of the Committee of Management be accorded to Captain H. F. J. Rowley, C.B.E., R.N., for his long, distinguished and most valuable services to the Royal National Life-boat Institution, and that this Committee desire to place on record their high esteem and regard for Captain Rowley both as an Officer of the Institution and as a friend.".