LIFEBOAT MAGAZINE ARCHIVE

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The Fishwives of Cullercoats

THE fishwives of Cullercoats carried out their tenth consecutive collection on behalf of the Institution on 1st August, when the Cullercoats and Whitley Bay Life-boat held its quarterly road exercise and launch. By collecting this year over £199 they easily passed their last year's record of £156. The figures for the ten years deserve to be given :—£ 1922 . . . 5 8 1923 . . . 9 2 1924 . . .101 1925 . . .122 1926 . . .128 1927 . . .114 1928 . . .137 1929 . . .146 1930 . . .156 1931 . . .199Thus, in ten years the fishwives have collected £1,253, and in only one year have they failed to collect more than in the previous year.

Seven of the fishwives each collected over £5. One, who is 85 years old, collected over £4, and Mrs. Polly Donkin, who each year has easily been the most successful collector, and who, at the last Annual Meeting of the Institution, was presented by the Prince of Wales with the Gold Brooch, herself collected over £83, beating her own record by £26, and collecting more than all the fishwives together in the first year. In the ten years she has collected £356, or more than a quarter of the total! Mrs. Donkin, in fact, is a Branch of the Institution in herself..