THE portrait on the cover is of the late Coxswain Angus McPhail, of Thurso, Caithness-shire, who died on 29th June last, at the age of sixty, after a distinguished career in the life-boat.

He was coxswain for thirteen years, from 1922 until his death. During that time the Thurso life-boat rescued 78 lives, and in the space of four years Coxswain MacPhail won the thanks of the Institution twice over, its bronze medal and an iron plaque from the German Government. He won the iron plaque in 1928 for rescuing the crew of fifteen of the steamer Aase, of Hamburg, after the life-boat had stood by her for a night and a day in a gale, with rain and bitterly cold weather. His first vellum he won in February, 1929, for a danger- ous and difficult service, when he took the life-boat among the rocks at Brims Ness by night, with a heavy swell running, and rescued the crew of the Grimsby trawler Edward VII. These two services were with the pulling and sailing life-boat.

In September, 1929, only a fortnight after the inaugural ceremony of the new motor life-boat, Coxswain McPhail won his second thanks on vellum for rescuing the crew of a cutter of the battleship Marlborough, with twenty men on board, which was caught in a gale, and was found by the life-boat anchored close inshore in the surf, unable to get clear and nearly swamped.

For that service Coxswain McPhail and his crew each received a gift from the Marlborough, " in gratitude and admira- tion for their promptitude and skill." The bronze medal Coxswain McPhail won two years later for a very gallant service. It was again off the rocky headland of Brims Ness, by night and with a heavy swell, but with the added danger of fog. There the schooner Pet, of Chester, had gone ashore. The motor life-boat got near enough to fire her line-throwing gun, a breeches-buoy was rigged, and one man was rescued.

He reported that the other three were all old men, the skipper being seventy- nine, and he was afraid that it would kill them to be hauled through the sea.

Without hesitation Coxswain McPhail took the life-boat close in, among sub- merged rocks and the remains of an old wreck, and kept her there for half an hour, until the three men had been lifted on board her, although at times she had no more than a foot of water under her, the tide was falling, and with each minute the danger that she might strike and be left on the rocks increased.

On his death the Institution awarded Coxswain McPhail's family a cox- swain's certificate and a special grant..