THE Royal National Life-boat Institu- tion has had only four secretaries during the 107 years of its existence. The first was Thomas Edwards, who served from 1824 to 1850. Richafd Lewis (1850 to 1883) and Charles Dibdin (1883 to 1910) were second and third; and George Francis Shee, who has just retired, with the honour of Knighthood, after twenty-one years of service, was the fourth.

I served as Sir George's deputy for nearly seven years, and I feel it only right that my first article in this Journal, after my appointment as his successor, should be a tribute, however inadequate, to his work for the Life-boat Service, and to his qualities as a man and as a friend.

The past twenty-one years have seen an enormously greater development in the Life-boat Service than the eighty-six that preceded them. In 1910 the Insti- tution had nine experimental Motor Life-boats; to-day the greater part of the Fleet is motor driven; and the modern British Motor Life-boat is as great an advance over that of 1910 as the modern passenger-carrying aero- plane is over that in which Bleriot flew the Channel twenty-two years ago.

His Achievement.

The administrative work connected with this great technical development fell, of course, on Sir George Shoe's shoulders, but it will be for his achieve- ments in obtaining from the public that financial support without which develop- ment would have been impossible, that he will be mainly remembered. The Institution's income in 1910 was £97,000; in 1930 it was £319,000; but these figures, striking as they are, fall short of showing the full extent of Sir George Shee's achievements. In 1910 nearly £15,000 was raised by the Life-boat Saturday Fund, an indepen- dent organisation, and if income from investments, and other receipts not the direct result of appeal, are omitted, the figures which should be compared are £53,000 in 1910 with £275,000 in 1930.

These, I think, speak for themselves ; but mere figures cannot describe the country-wide organization, based on the devoted work of men and women of all classes who have the Service at heart, which Sir George Shee has built up. It is a dynamic organization, ever seeking for more territory to cover, and for further fields of activity, and I am very sure that it will carry the Institution through the lean years which, it may be, are still to come. It will be my hops to develop that organization ; I would not alter its structure, and I cannot improve its design.

If I were asked what qualities in Sir George Shee have most impressed me, I would select three : his infectious enthusiasm for the Life-boat Service ; his amazing power of work ; and his unfailing kindness. As to the first, I do not believe the Service ever has been, or ever will be, out of his thoughts.

Probably few public men have had to contend with such constant ill-health, but his spirit has carried him on, and it has been his good fortune to find work to which he could give his whole heart and mind. Of his power of work I could say much. No task has been too great for him, and none too small. I think it might be said of him, as Samuel Johnson said of the poet Thomson — " He has a mind that at once compre- hends the vast, and attends to the minute." Of his kindness I need only say that all who knew him, whether in the daily work of the office or as visitors or correspondents, have experienced it.

To his staff he has been a leader, a director, sometimes a hard task-master ; but, above all, a friend.

That he may have before him many years of happiness is the wish of us all..