IN 1935 the Institution received a gift of £3,000 from Mrs. E. W. Montford, J.P., of Market Drayton, Shropshire, who is patron of the Stoke-on-Trent Ladies' Life-boat Guild, to provide a motor life-boat as a thank-offering for the Silver Jubilee of King George V.

This gift has provided the new motor life-boat for Wells, Norfolk, which has replaced a pulling and sailing life-boat.

She is one of the first two to be built of the new surf type, which is described on p. 165.

There has been a life-boat station at Wells since 1869. Its life-boats have been launched 59 times on service and have rescued 74 lives.

The naming ceremony took place on 13th July, and the Stoke-on-Trent branch, and the Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme Ladies' Life- boat Guilds organized a special trip to Wells to take part in it. The party, which came by special train, numbered 150, and included the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Stoke, the Deputy Mayor of Newcastle, and officers of the branch and the two guilds. One of the party was a woman eighty-seven years old. After the ceremony the party visited Sandringham, where, though it was not a public day, they were shown over the gardens by special permission of the King.

The Earl of Leicester, G.C.V.O., C.M.G., patron and president of the Wells branch, was in the chair. Mrs.

Montford presented the life-boat to the Institution, and it was received by Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., chairman, who thanked Mrs. Montford for her splendid generosity and paid a tribute to the life-boatmen of Norfolk, who had rescued over 4,500 lives and won ninety- six medals for gallantry. Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., then formally handed the life-boat to the branch and she was received on its behalf by Mr. F. Raven, J.P., the branch's chairman. The life- boat was dedicated by the Rev. F. G.

Beddard, M.A., Rector of Wells, and a vote of thanks to Mrs. Montford, the Earl of Leicester and Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., was proposed by Mr.

Herbert E. Loynes, the honorary secretary of the branch, and seconded by Dr. E. W. Hicks.

Mrs. Montford then named the life- boat Royal Silver Jubilee 1910-1935, and it was launched by tractor.