THE naming ceremony of a new motor life-boat at Ilfracombe, Devon, took place on 16th June. The life-boat is one of the first two of the new surf type, described on page 167. She has cost £2,750, and has been built out of a legacy from the late Mr. J. Hogg, of Boscombe, Hants. She has replaced a pulling and sailing life-boat.

There has been a life-boat station at Ilfracombe since 1828. Its life-boats have been launched on service 98 times since 1850 and have rescued 93 lives.

The ceremony took place in the pres- ence of about 3,000 people, and the boat- house, neighbouring houses, and boats in the harbour were decorated with flags.

In the absence of the chairman of the branch, the acting chairman, Mr. J. Armstrong, presided, supported, among others, by Lieut.-Col. C. R.

Satterthwaite, O.B.E., secretary of the Institution. Mr. Arthur C. Reed, C.C., M.P., president of the Exeter branch and a member of the committee of management of the Institution, pre- sented the life-boat to the branch in the name of the donor and the In- stitution, and she was received on behalf of the branch by Major F. H.

Thomas, J.P., chairman of the Ilfra- combe Urban District Council.

The Rev. I. Siviter, M.A., Vicar of SS. Philip and James's Parish Church, conducted the service of dedication, assisted by the Rev. A. J. Selwood, and the singing was led by the choir of SS. Philip and James's Parish Church, accompanied by the Ilfracombe ex- servicemen's band.

The life-boat was then named Rosabella by Mrs. F. C. Pilley, whose husband spoke of the long association of his family with Ilfracombe and Cornwall. Mr. Pilley's grandfather presented the motor life-boat, now at Fleetwood, Lancashire, which was stationed at The Lizard from 1920 to 1934, saving 130 lives, and out of his estate his family contributed generously towards the upkeep of the station and the improvements in the arrangements for launching and hauling up the life- boat. After Mr. Pilley's speech Major Thomas announced that Mr. Pilley and his sister intended, in memory of their father, to give £200 to pay for the new slipway at Ilfracombe.

Mrs. Philip Fairfax, honorary secre- tary of the Ilfracombe Ladies' Life- boat Guild, proposed, and Mr. F.

W. Birmingham seconded, a vote of thanks; and the life-boat was launched..