THE LIFE-BOAT FLEET Motor Life-boats, 131 :: Pulling & Sailing Life-boats, 37 LIVES RESCUED from the foundation of the Institution in 1824 to September 30th, 1936 - - - - 64,752 King Edward VIII and the Life-boat Service.

As has already been announced in The Life-boat, the King has been graciously pleased to become Patron of the Institution. He is the sixth sovereign to be Patron. Like his father and his grandfather, he has assumed that position on coming to the throne, after having been the Institution's President as Prince of Wales. He was President for seventeen years, from 1919 until his accession to the throne on January 20th, 1936.

At the beginning of his first life- boat speech he said: " I am glad to carry on the close relationship between my family and the life-boat service, which has marked the history of the Institution since its foundation nearly a hundred years ago." During his seventeen years as President he has made that relationship closer than it has ever been before, and even those most familiar with the life-boat service may be surprised, on reading this brief record of the Prince of Wales's associa- tion with the service, to see how personal, how active, and how generous has been his interest in every side of its work.

His Life-boat Speeches.

The Prince of Wales presided for the first time at the Institution's annual meeting in 1921, when he announced the formation of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild. He spoke and presented the medals for gallantry three years later at the centenary meeting at the Man- sion House, at which the Lord Mayor presided. He presided at the annual meeting again in 1928, in 1931, and in 1934. He had already promised to preside again this year when the death of King George cancelled that and all his other public engagements.

His Centenary Appeal.

During the memorable year of the Institution's centenary in 1924, he issued a special appeal *' to the men and women of our Empire to give generously in support of this great service." Besides speaking at the meet- ing at the Mansion House, he presided at the centenary dinner, at which the honoured guests were the Institution's gold medallists and the representatives of the foreign life-boat services who had attended the first international life-boat conference. Later in the year he attended the centenary thanks- giving service in London, and wrote an autograph letter, thanking the honorary workers and the staff of the Institution for their work during the centenary year.

In 1926 he spoke at the meeting of the general council of the Ladies' Life- boat Guild, which was held in London, at the house of the Guild's president, the Duchess of Sutherland. He went to Edinburgh in 1929 to speak at a Scottish National Life-boat Assembly, where the Scottish silver medallists were presented to him, and then went on to Glasgow, to be present at a life- boat ball on board the s.s. Transylvania.

In 1932 he attended a ball given by the Liverpool branch.

He named three motor life-boats, the B.A.S.P., at Yarmouth, Isle of Wight in 1926; the Sir William Hillary, at Dover in 1930 ; and the George Shee, at Torbay in 1932. Two motor life- boats are named after him, the Prince David, which was stationed at Barry Dock, Glamorganshire in 1922, and the Edward Prince of Wales, which was stationed at The Mumbles, Glamorganshire in 1924.

His Visits to the Coast.

At the annual meetings, when he presented medals, at the naming cere- monies, and on his other visits to the coast, he met and talked to scores of life-boatmen. Nothing, perhaps, has shown more clearly his generous interest in the Institution than his readiness, when on the coast on other business, to spare time to visit the life-boat stations and meet the crews. A month after his first presidential address at the annual meeting in 1921, when he was touring his Duchy of Cornwall, he went out in the motor life-boat at St. Mary's, Scilh'es. When he opened the new pavilion and promenade at Hastings in 1925, he visited the life- boat station, went aboard the boat, and was made a member of the fisher- men's Winkle Club, being presented with a winkle in gold. In 1928 at Grimsby, where he went to open a new bridge, he took the opportunity to speak of the life-boat service, and his pride in being its President. In 1931, when he went to Eastbourne to lay the foundation stone of. a hospital, he visited the life-boat station and met the crew.

He took a close interest in the financial side of the Institution's work, and again and again gave the full weight of his name and influence to its appeals.

At the annual meeting in 1928 he made a direct and personal appeal to the great shipping companies, with the result that six of the leading lines presented five motor life-boats to the Institution. Three years later he made a similar appeal to the trawler owners.

His Interest in Life-boat Days.

He took a special interest in the most popular of the Institution's appeals, the life-boat flag days. Twice, first in 1923, the Institution's hundredth year, and again in 1935, in celebration of King George's Silver Jubilee, he gave his own name to these appeals, which were carried out as Prince of Wales Day for the Life-boats. In 1923 he took part himself in Prince of Wales Day in Greater London, visited a number of the depots, and, after the day, sent his thanks to the collectors and the public. In the same year he was at Wolverhampton, and received the cheque for the collection on Prince of Wales Day. In 1927 he made a special appeal for a generous response on life-boat days, and in 1928 he again took part in fife-boat day in Greater London, visiting a number of the depots. His opinion of such appeals was emphatic. He said: " Every town ought to have a flag day for the life-boat." He saw in Paris the film " The Black Journey", the record of the journey by Citroen tracked cars from Algiers to the Cape, and himself suggested that it should be shown in England on behalf of the life-boat service. He was present when the film was shown, and went on to the stage to speak of the nation's pride hi its life-boat service, and to thank those who had helped it. He was present again when the film of the Citroen expedition across Asia, " An Eastern Odyssey " was shown on behalf of the Institution in 1934.

In ,1930 he received the King and Queen, when they attended the life-boat matinee at the Hippodrome in London, and in 1929 when he was in Bradford, opening the new buildings of the chamber of commerce, and found that the annual life-boat matinee was being held at the Alhambra the same''day, he not only went to it, but spoke from his box.

His Personal Appeals.

He wrote an introduction to Britain's Life-boats, the record of the first hundred years of the life-boat service, which was published in 1923, and in 1932 he wrote an introduction to Launch, by Major General Lord Mottistone, coxswain of the Brooke life-boat.

By his presence, by his speech, and with his pen, he has always been ready to give the life-boat service his help, and his words appealing personally to the people of Great Britain and the British Empire on behalf of the service, must have been read by millions in the Institu- tion's journal, its leaflets and its advertisements.

There are two still more personal examples of his kindness as the Insti- tution's President which should be recorded. After the annual meeting in 1928, he went to the Westminster Hospital to visit, in the incurable ward, a woman who, though crippled and bedridden, had for many years been a life-boat worker.

In the waiting-room at St. James's Palace, he had a life-boat collecting box. It was the only collecting box there.

He did for the Institution, again and again, what only he, as Prince of Wales, could do, and he did not disdain to do for it what even the humblest can do.