THE Duke of Northumberland's Life- boat Essay Competition for elementary schools was held this year for the thirteenth time. The number of schools which took part was 2,207, as compared with 2,249 in 1932. But though there was a decline of 42 in the total taking part, there was an increase of 111 in the number which entered for the inter- school competition—1,363 in 1938, as compared with 1,252 in 1932. In the North-West and the North-East of England and in London there was a decline in the number of schools competing, in the other districts an increase.

For the first time separate challenge shields were offered for competition in Ireland and Wales, so that the number of shields is now nine, while the number of individual prizes (35 for each district) has been increased from 280 to 315.

The Subject.

The subject was : " Why I should like to be a Life-boatman." It was felt that with the increasing part which women are taking in the adven- tures and hazards of life this was a subject on which the girls could write as well as the boys. Two head- mistresses wrote that they thought the subject unsuitable for girls and several of the girl essayists themselves seem to have felt some embarrassment, and were led into uncalled-for regrets at their sex. " I am sorry to say," wrote one, " that I was born a girl and can never be a man, which is very distress- ing." But the subject has certainly been justified by the results. The examiner in the North-West of England writes : " My first thought was that by the very nature of the title all the essays of the girls would be written under a severe handicap. I soon discovered that my fears had no foundation." The examiner for Scot- land writes : " One would have thought that the subject would make a greater appeal to boys than to girls. But where this district is concerned the girls have more than held their own, thus showing that if they can never hope to be life-boatmen they can at least use their imagination well." The division of prizes between boys and girls fully bears this out. A boy and a girl tie for the prize for the best essay in Great Britain and Ireland. It has now been won eight times by girls and six times by boys. Five of the challenge shields have been won by boys and four by girls, and of the individual prizes 158 go to boys and 155 to girls.

Girls, in fact, were as successful as boys in giving their reasons for thinking the life-boatman's the ideal life. -" Oh, give me this life," cries one essayist, " and I would be contented for ever." Love of Danger and Speed.

Many were attracted by the danger.

"As I am of a very adventurous nature, I think I would rather take an interest in being awakened in the middle of the night, and in going out in the life-boat in the howling, raging storm to rescue some terrified wretches on a sinking ship." " I should laugh if the boat over- turned and righted itself again." " I love to go racing along in motor- cars and buses and I would love to go speeding along in a life-boat." " I was meant to have thrills, and I love water." " The sea is in my blood, and I should like to snatch lives from its angry grasp." " I feel that a job of this kind will make me the man I want to be." " A self-righting life-boat would not suit me; it would not go fast enough, and there is more thrill when there is a chance of the boat going over." " It would be lovely to ride on the waves, one second up and the next second down, just like on the round- about." But all the essayists were not such daredevils. One modestly writes: " This good work should be left to better people than myself." Changing Ambitions.

Ambitions change as we grow older, but did ever anyone examine and reject so many before coming to his final choice as this writer : " When I was a small boy I wanted to be a lamp-lighter, later my ambition was to be a lion-tamer, then a bus- driver, an engine-driver, an airman, but when I learnt a little about life my ambition was to be a life-boatman." Another essayist, aged ten, wrote : "I should like to be a life-boatman now that I am getting older." Medali, " but not too many." Numbers of essayists looked forward to winning medals, but " not too many," said one, " because if you have a lot you are inclined to boast." But a medal is not the only desirable tribute to courage. " I would like," wrote another, " to get my photograph in the papers." Several essayists looked forward to more than a medal.

" Then when I would come to the shore, all the people would be ringing my hands and saying he deserves a gold medal. My master would raise my pay." Another essayist, after declaiming that " to save human life is better than all the wealth of the world," went on : " I should get a good deal of money for doing so." Another was more concerned to leave his family provided for. " One can always be sure of the security of the family when one gets drowned or injured. That is not always assured in many other situations, so therefore one might as well die for a noble cause than for none at all." But of those who touched on finance the quaintest were two who found satisfaction in being of help to the insurance companies.

" I should save much lamentation and sorrow," wrote one, " and I should also save the insurance companies from paying out money." A number looked forward to wearing oilskins, and one even found pleasure in the difficulties of getting into sea- boots.

" I would love the thought that if I was a life-boatman I would have to pull on big boots so quickly that I should nearly fall over." " Splendid Godsends." But if some of the reasons were frivolous, the essays left no doubt that the two things which appeal to the youth of the British Isles in the life- boatman's calling are the danger and the chivalry.

" I am convinced that the work of a life-boatman is of a higher value and of a nobler standard than that of the old Devon sea-dogs of Elizabethan days.

They brought sorrow and bloodshed— but the life-boatmen bring hope and gladness." " In these days when romance seems dormant, the life-boatmen are like the romantic knights of olden times, who spent their lives helping those in dis- tress." " Like the Viking, I have a love for the sea, but, as a life-boatman, I go not filled with thoughts of plunder and murder, but with the thought of helping a fellowman who is in distress." " The life-boatman has a much worse adversary than an armoured knight— the mighty ocean." But these knightly and chivalrous qualities were best expressed in two very simple and fine phrases. One essayist called the life-boatmen " brave sons of Providence," and another " splendid Godsends." The Best Essays in Great Britain and Ireland.

Among the nine essays which won the challenge shields three stood out from the rest—those by Joan Patricia Rose Jefferis, of the Circus Church School, Portsmouth; Eric Channell, of Wood Memorial Boys' School, Saltney, Flint- shire, and Gordon Groves, of Portland Senior Boys' School, South Norwood, London, S.E.25. It was impossible to say which of the first two was the better, and Joan Jefferis and Eric Channell will each receive the prize for the best essay in the British Isles.

Gordon Groves is a very close third.

Eric Channell has also the distinction that for the second year running he has won the Welsh challenge shield for his school. This feat has only once before been performed, in the first two years of the competition. In Scotland also, the same school, but a different essayist, has won the challenge shield for the second year running—St.

Augustine's School, Coatbridge, Lan- arkshire. If these schools win the shields again next year, they will be entitled to keep them.

Successful Towns.

Portsmouth and Southsea schools have now won the challenge shield for the South-West of England no fewer than six times in the thirteen com- petitions, a record unapproached by any other place ; and Portsmouth this year has altogether eight prize-winners.

Bristol has not only won the shield for the Midlands, but has altogether nine prize-winners; Liverpool has no fewer than eleven prize-winners, Cardiff six and North Shields five. In Scotland the Orkneys are again prominent with five prize-winners.

The Awards.

Joan Jefferis and Eric Channell will each receive a copy of Britain's Life-boats, by Major A. J. Dawson, inscribed by the Prince of Wales, and a certificate. Each of the other seven winners of challenge shields will receive a copy of Launch, by Major-General Seely, acting-coxswain of the Brooke, Isle of Wight life-boat, inscribed by the author. The schools will hold the shields for a year and each school will also receive, as a permanent record of its success, a copy of the certificate awarded to the pupil. The other prize- winners will each receive a certificate and a copy of Launch.

Thanks to the Teachers.

Once again the Institution most gratefully acknowledges the kindness of the Education Authorities in giving permission for the competition to be held, and the help which many of them were so good as to give by circulating the particulars of the competition and drawing attention to it in other ways, The Institution's warmest thanks are offered also to the teachers, without whose cordial and unselfish co-operation it would be impossible to carry out the competition, and to the judges in the nine districts for their generous interest and help.

Below will be found the names of the nine winners of challenge shields and the two best essays. The full list of winners is printed as a separate leaflet and will be sent, with a copy of this journal, to each of the schools which entered for the inter-school com- petition.

Winners of the Challenge Shields.

LONDON.—Violet Berryman, St. Luke's (Mixed) School, Fernhead Road, Paddington.

NORTH-EAST OF ENGLAND. — Ivy Leadley, Central Senior Girls' School, Scarborough.

NORTH-WEST OF ENGLAND.—Cecilia Murphy, St. Mary's Roman Catho- lic School, Crewe.

SOUTH-EAST OF ENGLAND.—Gordon Groves, Portland Senior Boys' School, South Norwood.

SOUTH-WEST OF ENGLAND.—Joan Patricia Rose Jefferis, The Circus Church School, Surrey Street, Portsmouth.

MIDLANDS.—Harold Warfield, Wick Road Senior Boys' School, Bris- lington, Bristol, 4.

SCOTLAND. — William McKenna, St.

Augustine's School, Coatbridge, Larnarkshire.

IRELAND.—William McCague, Rock- vale Public Elementary School, Newry, Co. Down.

WALES.—Eric Channell, Wood Mem- orial Boys' School, Saltney, Flint- shire..