By Councillor Alexander Robertson, Honorary Secretary of the Eastbourne Station.

THERE died in Eastbourne on 16th February, 1937, a lady, Mrs. Caroline Allchorn, who was a hundred years old last year. She was born on 3rd May, 1836. She had three children, fifteen grandchildren, twenty-three great- grandchildren, and five great-great- grandchildren.

Mrs. Allchorn, who was a daughter of William Breach, remembered the first train coming to Eastbourne, and as a girl was employed at the Old Town Post Office, one of her duties being to go on foot, three times a week, to the coast- guard on Beachy Head with their letters.

Three of Mrs. Allchorn's grandsons are members of the present life-boat crew, and her family have been as- sociated with the Eastbourne life-boat station even longer than she herself can remember. Her husband was a son of Edward Allchorn, who was born on 5th October, 1784, and who was a member of the first life-boat crew at Eastbourne.

Our life-boat station was established in 1822, two years before the Royal National Life-boat Institution itself was founded, and was not taken over by the Institution until 1853. The first life-boat was a gift from Mr. John Fuller, M.P., of Rose Hill, Sussex, who died in 1833. His estate passed to the son of his first cousin, Mr. Augustus Eliot Fuller, for many years Member of Parliament for East Sussex. The life-boat he left " to the inhabitants of Eastbourne." She was built by Simpson, of Eastbourne, and was 25 feet long, 8 feet 6 inches broad, and 3 feet 6 inches deep. She pulled ten oars.

The boat had no name, but she is said to have had a rose carved on her.

The First Service.

Her first service was in February 1833. On the 21st of that month the ship Isabella, on passage from London to Demerara, was wrecked on the Boulder Bank. A hurricane was blowing. The life-boat put out to her help, manned by twenty fishermen, one of whom was Edward Allchorn. They had to make two journeys to the wreck to rescue the twenty-nine persons on board, and shortly after they left her for the second time her decks blew up.

For this service the Institution awarded £20 to the life-boat's crew, and sent its thanks to Mr. Hamilton, principal officer of Customs, for the efficient state in which the life-boat was kept.

A Sussex Medal.

Mrs. Allchorn had in her possession a medal which was specially struck to commemorate the service and was pre- sented to each member of the crew. On one side is the portrait of John Fuller with the words : " John Fuller, Esq., Rose Hill, Sussex " ; on the other: " Presented to Edward Allchorn for his conduct in saving the lives of twenty- nine shipwrecked persons, 1833." In 1842 the life-boat rescued the crew of seven from the ship Watts, wrecked near Eastbourne in a violent gale from the south-west. Twelve fishermen manned the life-boat, and received a reward of £6 from the Institution.

Three years later, on 28th December, 1845, the life-boat went out to the help of a Dutch East-Indiaman Twee Cor- nelissen, a ship of about 860 tons, laden with coffee, indigo and sugar, which went ashore in Pevensey Bay, near Tower 55, and became a total wreck.

The Eastbourne life-boat rescued the master and nine seamen. Eighteen others had got ashore in the ship's boat the day before.

Thirteen men manned the life-boat on this service. They received rewards of five guineas from the Institution and five guineas from Mr. A. E. Fuller ; and the South Holland Society for Saving the Shipwrecked presented each member of the crew with a silver medal and a diploma in English.

One of the thirteen men was Thomas Allchorn, born on 15th December, 1800, a brother of Edward. The diploma presented to him is still in the possession of Mrs. Caroline Allchorn. On it is the fullest account we have of the service.

It reads as follows : DE ZUID HOLLANDSCHE MAATSCHAPPIJ tot Redding van SCHIPBREUKELINGEN te ROTTERDAM.

DIRECTORS of the SOUTH-HOLLAND INSTITUTION For The Preservation of Life from Shipwreck.

Established At ROTTERDAM, Do With Gratitude and Humane Feelings, Present to You, THOMAS ALLCHORN, residing at Eastbourne, County of Sussex, THE SILVER MEDAL, As A Lasting Memorial, of your bold and praiseworthy exertions, exhibited on the 28th day of December, 1845, with several of your brave Shipmates, in launching and manning the LIFE-BOAT,—be- longing to A. E. Fuller, Esq., M.P., of Rose-Hill,—and under a great risk of losing your own lives, working through a high surf and tremendous sea, blowing at that time a heavy gale, to reach the Dutch East-Indiaman TWEE CORNELISSEN, H. D. VAN DYK, Commander, stranded—on her homeward bound Voyage from Batavia to Amsterdam,— in Pevencey-Bay, on the coast of Sussex, in order to save part of her crew,—consisting of the Master and nine Seamen—who were in imminent danger of losing their lives, having already taken refuge in the rigging ; which said exertions have been crowned, by the assistance of Divine Providence, with such complete success, that all were landed safe on shore and treated with cordial hospitality.

ROTTERDAM, 3 April, 1846.

W. Van Houten, President.

F. P. Van Houten, Secretary.

To complete the record of Mr.

Fuller's life-boat, she went out to the barque Druid, of Sunderland, on llth January, 1862, and rescued nine lives.

Next year she was replaced by another life-boat. She had then been on service forty-one years, and had rescued fifty- five lives.

A Link with the First Life-boat.

By the death of Mrs. Allchorn, we have lost not only a link with the first life-boat service at Eastbourne, but a link between the very beginning of life- boat work in Great Britain and the modern life-boat fleet. It was in 1784 that Lionel Lukin, the London coach- builder, bought a Norway yawl and converted her into an " unimmergible boat." That was the first experiment in life-boat construction, for two years later Lukin converted a Northumber- land coble into another "unimmergible boat," and she was the first boat to be stationed on our coasts for the express purpose of saving life from shipwreck.

In that year of Lukin's experiment, 1784, Mrs. Allchorn's father-in-law, Edward Allchorn, who served in the first Eastbourne life-boat was born.

Mrs. Allchorn's grandsons, Edward's great-grandsons, are serving in the Eastbourne motor life-boat to-day..