Ex-Coxswain William Stephenson, of Alnmouth and Boulmer, who died in July, at the age of seventy-six, came of a very distinguished life-boat family.

He was the fourth member of it in succession, to be coxswain, and when he retired another Stephenson suc- ceeded him. He was appointed bow- man in 1890, second coxswain in 1897, and coxswain in 1898, retiring in 1922, so that he had served as an officer of the boat for thirty-two years, and for over twenty-four years he was coxswain.

During those thirty-two years the Alnmouth and Boulmer life-boats, which are manned by the same crew, rescued 132 lives. In 1913 Coxswain Stephenson won the silver medal for the rescue of twenty-five of the crew of thirty of the steam-trawler Tadorne, of Boulogne. She lay surrounded by rocks, with her decks awash, heavy seas rolling over her, and the crew in the rigging so numbed with cold (two, in fact, had already died of exposure) that, when the life-boat came alongside, they were almost powerless to help themselves. In addition to the In- stitution's silver medal, Coxswain William Stephenson was awarded for the service a gold medal by the French Government and a medal by the Societe des Hospitallers Sauveteurs Bretons. When he retired he received a pension and the coxswain's certificate of service..