BY the death of Mrs. Lotinga Smith, of Gedling, Nottingham, on the 26th of December, 1950, at the age of 93, the Institution has lost its oldest honorary worker. In spite of her age, and in spite of ill-health, she refused to give up and continued her work to the end. She was born in Northumber- land, and was the daughter of a ship- owner of North Shields. She came from the coast where the first life-boats were stationed, and in her youth saw many wrecks at the mouth of the Tyne.

In 1883 she settled in Nottingham, as a headmistress of a girl's school, and in 1886 she started to collect for the Life-boat Service among the school- children, first in farthings and then in halfpennies.

For nearly fifty years she collected in the Carlton district of the Notting- ham branch, and for many years was in charge of the district. During the six years of war, 1939 to 1945, the district contributed £3,154, and of that total Mrs. Lotinga Smith herself collected £2,393. In her sixty-four years of life-boat work, it was of that record in the war that she herself was most proud. In 1937 the Institu- tion awarded her its gold badge, given only for long and distinguished services, and in 1948 it appointed her an hono- rary life-governor, the highest honour it can give to an honorary worker.

Very few, if any, of its honorary workers have equalled Mrs. Lotinga Smith's long record of service..