THE Life-boat Service was on the air a number of times in 1950, both in broadcasts and in television.

In the spring the B.R.C. gave, in the European Service, a series of six broad- casts, in English and seven or eight other languages, on British Institutions under the heading "London Calling Europe." The first subject in the series was Public Libraries, the second the Life-boat Service, and the remain- ing four were a Labour Exchange, Thames River Police, a Rent Tribunal and London Transport Executive.

Each broadcast lasted half an hour.

"The Life-boat Service" was broad- cast on the 23rd of May. It included short accounts by Colonel A. D. Burnett- Brown, M.C., T.D., M.A., the secretary of the Institution, of its history, the voluntary principle, and the Institu- tion's organization; a launch of the life-boat at Southend-on-Sea; accounts of two gold medal services in time of War, the service of Cromer to the Swedish steamer Fernebo, in 1917, and of the Humber life-boat to the trawler Garth in 1940; a word or two on the Depot, with the 30,000 separate items of equipment in its store-rooms; the record and character of Coxswain Henry Blogg, G.C., B.E.M., of Cromer; and a description of a life-boat. The broad- cast ended with a recording of part of the Duchess of Kent's speech at the Institution's annual meeting.

At the annual meeting, on the 26th of April, the Duchess had presented a gold medal to Coxswain Thomas King, of St. Helier, Jersey, and bronze medals to the seven members of his crew for their very gallant rescue of the crew of the yacht Maurice George on the 14th of September, 1949. After the meeting Coxswain King and his crew, intro- duced by Commodore the Earl Howe, C.B.E., V.R.D., P.C., R.N.V.R., deputy chairman of the Institution, appeared in the television magazine programme called "Picture Page." The Southend-on-Sea life-boat was on the television screen on the 26th of May when she was launched, and rescued Mr. Richard Dimbleby of the B.B.C., by breeches buoy. It was noticed afterwards at the boat-house how many visitors as they came in, said "This is the boat that we saw in tele- vision." She was again launched for the B.B.C. on Trafalgar Day, the 21st of October, with Mr. Brian Johnston on board, and the launch was heard in the Saturday night programme "Let's Go Somewhere" in "In Town To-night." On the 4th of March, the Institu- tion's birthday, there was an anniver- sary talk, and in August, in the summer holiday programme "Hullo There!", the Institution was fourth in a series "At Your Service, a holiday visit behind the scenes of a famous public service." B.B.C. recording vans visited the life- boat stations at Dundee, Clacton-on- Sea and Walton-on-the-Naze. Cox- swain George Tait, of Dungeness, took part in a programme on the Romney, Ilythe, and Dymchurch Light Railway, speaking about the work of his station, and Coxswain Alfred Webber, of Mine- head, appeared in the programme on Somerset in the series "County Mixture," a series of scrapbook pro- grammes of the counties of the West Country. A French broadcaster went out to the Goodwin Sands.in the Walnier life-boat..