BY the death on the 6th of February, of His Majesty King George VI, the Life-boat Service lost not only a beloved Sovereign but its own Patron.

He had carried on the tradition of over a century and a quarter that the reigning sovereign should be the head of the Life-boat Service, and was the seventh sovereign to give it his patronage. He first knew the Life- boat Service in 1911, when, as Prince Albert, he was a cadet at Dartmouth, visited the Newquay station, with his brother, the Prince of Wales, and saw a launch of the life-boat. In 1926, as Duke of York, he took part in the ceremony at the Montrose station when the new life-boat was named by the Duchess of York, and in 1929, when the illness of King George V prevented him, and Queen Mary, from attending the life-boat matinee at the Lyceum Theatre, at which Mr. Louis N. Parker's life-boat play Their Business in Great Waters, was first performed, with a very distinguished cast, the Duke of York came in their place. In 1939 the new life-boat at The Lizard, presented to the Institution by King George's Fund for Sailors, was named after him, Duke of York. In 1936 he became President of the Institution, on the accession to the throne of King Edward VIII, and on his own accession to the throne, before the end of the year, he became Patron.

On the death of the King a telegram of sympathy was sent to the Queen, signed by the chairman, Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., from the Insti- tution "its committee, officers, staff, crews, and honorary workers," to which Her Majesty replied: "I am sincerely grateful for your message. Please assure all those for whom you speak that I deeply value their kindness and sympathy.

Elizabeth R." At the first meeting of the Committee of Management after His Majesty's death it was proposed by the deputy chairman, Commodore the Earl Howe, seconded by Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry Oliver, and unanimously carried, that the following humble and loyal messages be presented to Her Majesty the Queen and Her Majesty the Queen Mother: "The Committee of Management and the officers and staff of the Royal National Life-boat Institution, the honorary officials of its branches and of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild throughout the British Isles, and the coxswains and crews of its life-boats round their coasts, desire to express to Your Majesty their profound grief at the death of His Most Gracious Majesty King George VI, the Institution's Patron, to offer to Your Majesty their loyal and deep sympathy and to assure you of the devotion of the Service to vour Person and Crown." "The Committee of Management and the officers and staff of the Royal National Life-boat Institution, the honorary officials of its branches and of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild throughout the British Isles, and the coxswains and crews of its life-boats round their coasts, desire to express to Your Majesty their profound grief at the death of His Most Gracious Majesty King George VI, to offer to Your Majesty their loyal and deep sympathy and to place on record the gratitude of the Life-boat Service of Great Britain and Ireland to his late'Majesty for his personal association with its work during the fifteen years of his reign." The Institution sent to the funeral a wreath in the colours of the Life-boat Service, red tulips and carnations, blue iris, and white carnations.

On the wreath were the words: "In loyal and grateful memory from the Life-boat Service to its Patron.".