His Majesty King George V
THE LIFE-BOAT FLEET Motor Life-boats, 128 :: Pulling & Sailing Life-boats, 40 LIVES RESCUED from the foundation of the Institution in 1824 to February 29th, 1936 - 64,549
His Majesty King George V.
BY the death of His Majesty King George V the Life-boat Service has lost not only a beloved Sovereign, but one who for forty-six of his seventy-one years was personally associated with its work. Since the Institution was founded, in the reign of George V, each Sovereign in turn has been its Patron, but none has been connected with it in so many ways as King George V. In paying its last tribute of gratitude to his memory the Institution would recall the last message which it received from him, when, for the first time, the representatives of the life-boat services of nine countries met in London : " I pray that God's blessing may be vouchsafed to all brave men who risk their lives in the humane and heroic work of the life-boat services of the world." At the first meeting of the committee of management after His Majesty's death it was proposed by the chairman of the Institution, Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., seconded by the deputy chairman, the Hon. George Colville, and unanimously carried, that the following humble and loyal messages be presented to His Majesty the King and Her Majesty Queen Mary.
" The committee of management and the officers and staff of the Royal National Life-boat Institution, the honorary officials of its branches and of the Ladies' Life-boat Guilds throughout the British Isles, and the coxswains and crews of its life-boats round their coasts, desire to express to Your Majesty their profound grief at the death of His Most Gracious Majesty King George V, the Institution's Patron, to offer to Your Majesty their loyal and deep sympathy, and to assure Your Majesty of the profound gratitude of the Life-boat Service of Great Britain and Ireland for your generous and personal association with its work, as its President, during the past seventeen years, and of the devotion of the Service to your Person and Crown." " The committee of management and the officers and staff of the Royal National Life-boat Institution, the honorary officials of its branches and of the Ladies' Life-boat Guilds throughout the British Isles, and the cox- swains and crews of its life-boats round their coasts, desire to express to Your Majesty their profound grief at the death of His Most Gracious Majesty King George V, to offer to Your Majesty their loyal and deep sympathy, and to place on record the profound gratitude of the Life-boat- Service of Great Britain and Ireland to His late Majesty for his generous and personal association with its work for forty-six years, as one of its vice-patrons, as a member of its committee of management, as its president, and finally, with Your Majesty, as one of its patrons during the twenty-six years of his reign." The following reply was received to this resolution from the private secretary to Her Majesty Queen Mary.
" I have had the honour of submitting to Queen Mary your letter of February 13th, conveying a message of sympathy on behalf of the Committee of Management of the Royal National Life-boat Institution on the death of King George V.
" In reply I am commanded to ask you to convey to the Chairman, Deputy Chairman, the Committee and to all associated with this message, an expression of Queen Mary's deep appreciation of their kind thought for Her Majesty in her great sorrow.
" I am to assure one and all that the Queen is much touched by the reference to His late Majesty in regard to the services which he rendered to the Institution over such a long period of years, and Her Majesty wishes me to express her warmest thanks for this charming tribute to the memory of the late King.".