BY the death of Major Ernest Read Cooper, of Woodbridge, Suffolk, on the llth of February, at the age of 83, the Life-boat Service lost an old and distinguished friend. Born at Blythburgh, Suffolk, in 1865,- he spent the greater part of his life in Southwold, And was its town clerk and clerk to the magistrates. He was a man who held many offices and had many interests.

He was an historian, an antiquary, a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a member of the Society for Nautical Research. His deepest interest was the sea and probably there was 110 one who knew so much of the life and history of the Suffolk coast.

He was the honorary secretary of the life-boat station at Southwold from 1900 to 1920 and was awarded the Institution's binoculars, its thanks on vellum and its gold badge.

Major Cooper contributed frequently to the East Anglian Daily Times under the name "Suffolk Coast," and to a number of sea journals. In 1912 he published Seventy Years Work of the Southwold Life-boats, and in 1917 he wrote for the Institution's journal "The Southwold Life-boats, 1890-1916." Besides these histories of the life-boat station he wrote a number of charming books on Suffolk, its history and people. His last book, published in 1937, Storm Warriors of the Suffolk Coast, is one of the best life-boat books ever written. In a foreword to it the secretary of the Institution said: "If there could be found for every part of the coast of these islands an historian with the knowledge which Major Cooper has of the coast of Suffolk, what a story could be written!" Mrs. Cooper wrote to the Institution after his death: "My husband was indeed a lover of the Life-boat Service.

Indeed, I think it was his greatest interest. He was always talking of it and thinking of it. His last wish was that some of the life-boatmen from Southwold should carry him when he was buried. This they did. They were all members of the old crew.".