ALL who are connected with the Lifeboat Service will have heard with great regret of the death on the 7th of November, 1947, in his eightieth year, of Major-General the Right Hon. Lord Mottistone, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., P.C.

(John Edward Bernard Seely). Lord Mottistone had three distinguished careers: as a soldier, as a politician, and as a member of the Life-boat Service.

He believed that a man should "live dangerously," and in 1891 he was awarded a gold medal by the French Government for gallantry. With a coastguard he took a line out to a French ship, which had been smashed on the rocks near Brooke, and helped the crew ashore.

- He became a member of the Committee of Management of the Institution in 1901, and served on it for forty-six years until his death. He was ap- ' pointed a vice-president in 1930. He brought to the work of the Committee ' the personal and practical knowledge of a life-boatman, for he had joined the life-boat crew at Brooke in the Isle of Wight in 1894, and in 1933 was appointed coxswain. • He served as coxswain until 1936, and a few months later the station was closed. During those forty-three years the Brooke lifeboat was launched on service sixteen times and rescued forty-one lives.

Lord Mottistorie wrote six books.

The third, published in 1932, was his book, named Launch, on the Lifeboat Service. In his introduction the Prince of Wales, then President of the Institution, wrote: "He recalls some of the finest feats of the Lifeboat Service. He writes of what he knows—of its enormous risks, of the courage of its men, of their wonderful success. In these days it is a heartening thing to remember such achievements, and I recommend this book to all. I recommend it specially to those who are inclined to lose confidence in our future. It will put courage into them." Those words are a tribute not only to the Life-boat Service but to Lord Mottistone's own gallant life..