COLONEL CLEMENT RICHARD SATTERTHWAITE retired from the secretaryship of the Institution at the end of last year. He had then been in its service for twenty-two years, nearly seven as deputy-secretary and over fifteen as secretary.

At the next meeting of the Committee of Management, Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., chairman of the Committee, proposed, and Commodore the Earl Howe, R.N.V.R., deputy-chairman, seconded a resolution which was carried unanimously : "That the most cordial thanks of the Committee of Management be accorded to Lieut.-Colonel C. R. Satterthwaite for his long, distinguished and most valuable services to the Royal National Life-boat Institution, and that this Committee desire to place on record their very deep appreciation of his devotion to the Life-boat Service and his untiring zeal on its behalf, especially during the arduous years of the late war, as well as their very high esteem and regard for him both as an officer of the Institution and as a friend." The Years of War That resolution rightly lays emphasis on "the arduous years of the war," and I think that Colonel Satterthwaite himself will like best to remember that he was in command of the Life-boat Service during those six busiest and most dangerous years which it has ever had, when its work increased threefold, when its staff was seriously diminished and always changing, when its boats, damaged or destroyed, could not be replaced, when it had the most urgent calls ever made upon it, and knew that its resources were never more than barely sufficient to meet its needs.

It was a long and severe strain. The service came through it triumphantly, but only those who have held command know what it is to be in command at such a time.

Before the war there were other difficulties and anxieties, small by comparison, but serious in their day.

When Colonel Satterthwaite became secretary in 1931 the country was passing through a severe financial crisis, and in that year the Institution's revenue fell by over £55,000 from its record revenue of £319,434 the year before. It quickly recovered, it continued to increase, and in 1945 it was over £609,000. That is an impressive figure. Here is another: in those fifteen years of his secretaryship-the life-boats of the Institution rescued over 10,000 lives. Those are figures on which any man may look back with pleasure and pride when his work comes to an end.

A Man Who Trusted His Staff So much I would say in amplification of the Committee of Management's tribute, but I want to add to it the tribute of those who served under him.

He was well known to the Committee of Management, he was known to the Institution's honorary workers all over the country, but it is we who worked with him in the daily round at the headquarters of the Life-boat Service who knew him best. If one is to try to put him in a sentence it would be that he was a man who trusted his staff and whom his staff trusted. Such a man gets the best work from those who serve under him. They knew that once they had their instructions, they would be left to carry them out unhampered and unnamed, but that if they had any difficulty they could bring it to him in the certainty of being listened to sympathetically, understood at once, and advised clearly and briefly. He did nothing without good reasons, and without making them clear.

Giving Praise to Others He was the most modest of men.

When things were going well, he effaced himself. He was the last man to desire any credit which he felt belonged to someone else. It was when there were difficulties to be faced that he became at once the commander. Praise he would let go by. His care was to see that it went to others. But when there was responsibility to be taken, he was there to take it.

I am not a professional soldier, but I have spent ten years of my life on active service and many more years in frequent contact with soldiers. The profession of arms as a rule puts a very clear mark on a man, and he may not find it easy to work in the very different atmosphere of civil life. Colonel Satterthwaite. chose the profession; he gave over twenty years of his life to it; he served in it with distinction; but I have never met a professional soldier whose sympathies, understanding and tastes were so wide as his. That, I think, was the secret of his success with the Life-boat Service.

He brought to its work the training and experience of a soldier with none of their limitations. Now that his lifeboat work is done, his friends on the staff wish Colonel Satterthwaite all happiness in his retirement..