Coxswain Thomas Rees, who died at the age of seventy-eight, was coxswain of the Angle life-boat for fifteen years, from 1906 until 1920, when he retired on account of old age. His most notable service was performed as a member of the crew in 1894, when the ship Loch Shiel, of Glasgow, stranded on Thorn Island at the entrance to Milford Haven. Twenty-seven of the passengers and crew had climbed off the wreck on to the rocks. The honor- ary secretary of the station, Thomas Rees and another member of the crew landed from the life-boat, crawled along the edge of the cliff, where the path was barely a foot wide, hauled up the twenty-seven people from the rocks below, and brought them safely along the cliff-edge to the life-boat, a hazardous journey in the darkness.

For this gallant exploit each of the three men was awarded the Institution's silver medal. On his retirement Cox- swain Rees received a certificate of service and a pension..