IN 1928 the Institution stationed at Southend-on-Sea, Essex, a motor life- boat of the Ramsgate type. This life-boat, which had been given and endowed by the Civil Service Life-boat Fund, was named Greater London in the following year by H.R.H. the Prince George, K.G., G.C.V.O., R.N.

(now the Duke of Kent).

The Greater London replaced a pulling and sailing life-boat. The pulling and sailing life-boat had lain afloat for the greater part of the year, but during three months of the winter she was kept in a house ashore. A new life- boathouse has been built for the Greater London, lying off the side of the pier. It is of timber and concrete, 68 feet 6 inches long by 25 feet 6 inches wide, and is carried on braced columns of cast iron, mounted on fifty-two con- crete piles which are screwed into the sea-bed. The concrete slipway is nearly 180 feet long, with a gradient of 1 in 6. Boat-house and slipway have cost nearly £16,000. The formal opening of the boat-house took place on 23rd July, when the town celebrated the centenary of the pier.

Lord Ritchie of Dundee, the chair- man of the Port of London Authority, unveiled a commemoration tablet on the pier, and then took part in the opening of the boat-house. Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., chairman of the Institution, presented the boat-house to the South- end-on-Sea branch, and it was accepted by the chairman of the branch, Alder- man R. H. Thurlow Baker. Lord Ritchie then cut a tape at the entrance, declared the boat-house open and un- veiled a tablet which records that boat-house and slipway have been built, in part, out of a legacy from the late Mr. Barclay Harper Walton, of London.

A photograph showing Mr. Walton on board his steam yacht Syren, at Burn- ham-on-Crouch, has been presented to the branch by his friend Mr. JSthelstan E. Moore, and is hung in the boat-house.

Before the ceremony a luncheon was given by the Mayor, Councillor A. T.

Edwards, J.P., at which the toasts were the Chairman of the Port -of London Authority and the Royal National Life-boat Institution..