ALL who were connected with the Lifeboat Service twenty years ago will have heard with regret of the death, on the 4th -of April, of Captain Howard Fiennes Julius Rowley, C.B.E., R.N.

He was in his eightieth year, and it was nearly eighteen years since he had retired as Chief Inspector of Life-boats.

He came to the Institution in 1902 when he retired from the Navy, and served for five years as a district •inspector. In 1909 he was appointed Deputy Chief Inspector, but on the outbreak of war in 1914 he was recalled to the Navy. He served as Senior Naval Officer arid Divisional Naval Transport Officer at Inverness and was made a C.B.E. He came back to the Institution in 1919 as Chief Inspector.

His 28 years with the Life-boat Service saw greater changes in its fleet than had ever been made before. When he joined, the whole fleet, except for four steam life-boats, was dependent on sails and oars. When he became Chief Inspector there were 19 motor lifelx ats. When he retired there were 88.

What had been little more than an experiment in motor power had become, during his chief inspectorship, a powerful motor fleet. In those eleven busy years there were designed and built the first cabin life-boat, the first lifeboat with twin screws, the first of the light motor life-boats for launching off the beach, the first launching tractor and the line-throwing gun. In fact, •Captain Rowley laid in those eleven years the foundation of the fleet as it is to-day, with its motor life-boats independent of sail, and different types specially designed to suit all the differing conditions of the coast..