Sir Charles H. Wilson, LL.D, F.S.A.A., of Leeds.

BY the death, on 30th December, 1930, at the age of seventy-four, of Sir Charles Wilson, LL.D., F.S.A.A., Chairman of its Leeds Branch, the Institution has lost one of the most distinguished of its honorary workers. In spite of his many other interests and activities, as a business man and politician, Sir Charles Wilson took a close and personal interest in the work of the Leeds Branch, and his help, experience and great influence were always at its service. He was a devoted friend of the Life-boat cause for over thirty years. For a number of years he was the Honorary Secrefary of the Leeds Life-boat Saturday Fund. When that Fund was taken over by the Institution in 1911 he became a member of the committee of the Leeds Branch, and in 1929 he was elected Chairman. During his Chair- manship Leeds contributed over £8,250 to the Institution. Last October Sir Charles Wilson was appointed an Honor- ary Life-Governor, the highest distinc- tion which the Institution can confer on an honorary worker.

Colonel T. H. Cornish, of Penzance.

By the death on 22nd December, 1930, at the age of sixty-seven, of Colonel T. H. Cornish, the Town Clerk of Penzance, the Institution has lost one of its oldest Station Honorary Secretaries. Colonel Cornish was a great lover of the sea. He had been a keen yachtsman, had served on the Cornwall Sea Fisheries Committee, and for forty-five years was a Station Honorary Secretary, first of Penzance and Sennen Cove, then, from 1908 to 1913, of Penzance, Newlyn and Sennen Cove, and, since 1913, of Sennen Cove only. In spite of his many municipal and public duties both as Town Clerk and in the other offices he held, Colonel Cornish found time to take a very active part in the work of the Life- boat Stations, and during his years of office they rescued 285 lives. Colonel Cornish was a man of great influence and wide popularity, and the Institu- tion was very fortunate in having him as its Honorary Secretary at these important Stations. He received three awards from the Institution as marks of its gratitude and appreciation—in 1896 Inscribed Binoculars, in 1907 the Institution's Decoration, and in 1913 the Gold Cross. The last two awards are now no longer made, having been replaced by the Gold Badge and the Honorary Life-Governorship.

Coxswain William Johnston, of . Stromness.

Coxswain William Johnston, of Stromness, in the Orkneys, died on 3rd February last, at the age of sixty-five.

He had retired only five months before on account of ill health. Appointed Coxswain in 1915, he was twice awarded the Bronze Medal of the Institution for gallantry. He won it first in 1922 when, on 16th January of that year, the Stromness Motor Life-boat rescued from a raft the two survivors of the Grimsby trawler, Freesia, only a few minutes before they would have been carried to certain death. On that service the Life-boat was out for nine hours, travelling 50 miles on a lee shore, con- tinually swept by heavy seas; and during the nine hours Coxswain John- ston did not leave the wheel. The second Service Clasp to his Medal was awarded to him for the rescue of the crew of another Grimsby trawler, Carmania II, on 14th February, 1929, when he showed perfect judgment and seamanship in taking the Life-boat right among the reefs and breakers. These were only two of many fine services in which he was in command. Two of the last were in March and April, 1930, when the Stromness Life-boat travelled 260 miles out and home in a gallant attempt to rescue the crew of the trawler Ben Doran, wrecked on the west of the Shetlands; and then, only nine days later, travelled 240 miles out and home to the help of the s.s. St. Sunniva, wrecked on the east of the Shetlands.

That first journey, made in the worst con- ditions of weather, is the longest journey ever made by a Motor Life-boat on service. Altogether, during Coxswain Johnston's Coxswainship, the Stromness Motor Life-boat was launched on service 56 times and rescued 131 lives..