THE annual meeting was held at the Central Hall, Westminster, on the 24th of April, 1952, with Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., chairman of the Com- mittee of Management, in the chair.

H.R.H. the Duchess of Kent, Presi- dent of the Institution, presented the medals for gallantry and other awards, and gave her presidential address.

Her Royal Highness was accom- panied by her daughter, the Princess Alexandra, who was attending her first public meeting.

The Right Hon. the Viscount Waverley, G.C.B., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., proposed, and the Right Hon. Alfred Barnes, M.P., seconded, the resolution of gratitude to the coxswains and crews of the life-boats, the honorary officers and committees of the stations, and the honorary officers and members of the financial branches and the Ladies' Life-boat Guild. Captain Guy D. Fanshawe, R.N., a vice-president of the Institution proposed and Com- mander Oscar Henderson, C.V.O., C.B.E., D.S.O., R.N., a member of the Committee of Management, seconded the vote of thanks to the Duchess of Kent.

Supporting the Duchess on the platform were the Mayor and Mayoress of Westminster, the Chairman of the London County Council, the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Norwich, Winifred Duchess of Portland, a vice- patron of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild, the Mayors and Mayoresses of over forty other boroughs, representatives of the Ministry of Transport, the Coastguard, the Civil Service Life-boat Fund, the Shipwrecked Mariners Society, King George's Fund for Sailors, vice-president and honorary life-governors of the Institution, donors of life-boats or their represen- tatives, members of the Committee of Management and members of the Central London Women's Committee.

The Chairman's Address Our first thought as we meet today to review the work of our 128th year, must be that two months ago, we lost, by the death of pur beloved Sovereign, the Patron of the Institution. His Majesty carried on the tradition of over a century that the reigning Sovereign should be the head of the Life-boat Service, and he was the seventh to be our Patron. We are deeply grateful for his name and support during the sixteen momentous years of his reign, as we are to your Royal Highness for the more intimate help of the Royal Family which we enjoy by your constant, generous and personal interest in all our work.

We are delighted to welcome this afternoon, for the first time, your Royal Highness's daughter, and we hope that we shall often have the pleasure of seeing the Princess Alexandra at our meetings.

In the records of the Institution there is a long and impressive list of the names of those men, of all parties, who have spoken at these meetings. We are happy and proud to add two more distinguished names to that list today, Lord Waverley and Mr. Alfred Barnes.

No man in the country has a more brilliant or more varied record of great public services than Lord Waverley. I will only remind you that, as head of the Port of London Authority, he, like ourselves, is deeply concerned with the work of the Mercantile Marine.

Mr. Barnes was, for five years, the Minister of Transport, and we gratefully remember his interest in our work during those years.

With that Ministry the Institution has close and very friendly relations.

There are other busy men on this platform who have very kindly taken this afternoon from their own work, in order, by their presence, to pay their tribute to the Life- boat Service—Lord Mayors, Mayors and Chairmen of nearly fifty cities, towns, boroughs and district councils. We are very grateful to them.

You have before you the report and accounts of last year. It was a year of very gallant deeds, but what I want to emphasise is that although our expenditure was nearly £100,000 less than the year before, it still exceeded the income. I must say again that our gratitude to our workers and the public is accompanied by a very earnest request that an even greater measure of public support may be forthcoming. I now formally move the adoption of the report and accounts for 1951. (Applause.) The Report and Accounts and Elections The report and accounts for 1951 were adopted, and the President, vice-presidents, treasurer and other members of the Com- mittee of Management and the auditors were elected.

Presentation of Medals The secretary read accounts of services by the life-boats at Porthdinllaen, Caernarvon- shire; St. Helier, Jersey; Walmer, Kent; Longhope, Orkneys; Flamborough, York- shire; Margate, Kent; Dover, Kent; Selsey, Sussex; Scarborough, Yorkshire; and Torbay, Devon: To SECOND-COXSWAIN WILLIAM DOP, OF PORTIIDINLLAEN, CAERNARVONSHIRE, the silver medal for the rescue in the darkness of the early morning of the 9th of August, 1951, in a rough sea, of the crew of three of the yacht Waterbell.

To COXSWAIN EDWARD C. LARBALESTIER OF ST. HELIER, JERSEY, the silver medal for rescuing on the night of the 27th of Septem- ber, 1951, in a heavy swell among rocks, the crew of three of the yacht Santa Maria of Cartaret, France.

To COXSWAIN FREDERICK UPTON OF WALMER, KENT, a bar to his silver medal for the rescue in the early morning of the 14th of January, 1952, in a gale with a very rough sea, of the crew of thirty-eight of the French steamer Agen, stranded on the Goodwin Sands.

To C. PERCY CAVELL, THE MOTOR MECHANIC OF WALMER, KENT, a bar to his bronze medal for the same service.

To COXSWAIN ALFRED JOHNSTON, OF LONGHOPE, ORKNEYS, the bronze medal for rescuing the crew of forty of the M. V. Oljaren of Gothenburg, in heavy seas on the 12th and 13th of April, 1951.

To EDWARD A. SLAUGHTER, THE MOTOR MECHANIC AT FLAMBOROUGH, YORKSHIRE, the bronze medal for swimming from the life- boat in a heavy breaking swell among rocks, on the afternoon of the 15th of May, 1951, to the help of a boy who had fallen from the top of the cliffs.

To ALFRED R. WILSON, LIFE-BOATMAN OF MARGATE, KENT, the bronze medal for going on board the yacht Girlanda, in the darkness of the early hours of the 2nd of September, 1951, in a heavy sea, to secure a tow-rope and cut away her anchor so that the life-boat was able to tow her and the two men on board into harbour.

To COXSWAIN JOHN WALKER OF DOVER, KENT, the bronze medal for rescuing on the night of the 27th of September, 1951, in a very rough sea, a man who was alone in the yacht Akeco of Amsterdam.

To COXSWAIN LESLIE C. PENNYCORD, OF SELSEY, SUSSEX, the bronze medal for rescuing on the 18th of November, 1951, the crew of six of the motor vessel Swift, of Costa Rica, after standing by her all night in a very heavy sea with a south-westerly gale blowing.

To COXSWAIN JOHN N. SHEADER, OF SCARBOROUGH, YORKSHIRE, the bronze medal for rescuing on the night of the 9th of Decem- ber, 1951, in a gale with a very rough sea, the crew of ten of the motor vessel Westkust of Rotterdam.

To THOMAS J. MAINPRIZE, ASSISTANT MOTOR MECHANIC OF SCARBOROUGH, YORK- SHIRE, the bronze medal for the same service.

To COXSWAIN HENRY O. THOMAS, TORBAY, DEVON, the bronze medal for rescuing in a gale, on the night of the 30th of January, 1952, the crew of eleven of the R.E. tug Trieste.

The Duchess of Kent The stories of gallantry to which you have just been listening bear witness to the out- standing courage of life-boatmen along our shores during the past year. Together, these exploits present a record of vigilance and decision in the face of great hazards, which it would be hard to equal, but which is upheld year after year by the men of this magnificent service.

I am always glad to recognise old friends whose skill and daring have brought them to this platform before, and it has therefore given me much pleasure to present awards to the coxswain and motor mechanic of the Walmer station—a station which, among others, I visited last year.

But there is one man who cannot be here to receive the applause which he so rightly deserves, and whose medal was won on a service from Scarborough—a service from which he never returned. I know that you would wish me to express to his widow your deep sympathy, and your admiration of the bravery which cost him his life.

The sea is no respecter of persons, and as an island people we have given much thought and ingenuity to the task of combating its fierceness and cruelty. Our livelihood has depended on the skill of our sailors, and the inspiration of our craftsmen, and it is only fitting that the craftsmen's skill should also receive its tribute this afternoon, for we owe to them the improvements in design, and the added security which, through their technical innovations, they bring to our life-boats each year.

Foremost amongst these improvements is the installation of diesel, in place of petrol, engines, and in future all life-boats will have diesel engines. Next in importance is the design of a new type of wireless set—equal to even the roughest seas—and by the end of the year the work will be finished of equipping the fleet with it.

Behind the work of construction lies the not less important task of raising funds. I need not emphasise what this means to the Service, except to remind you that the Life-boat Institution has always been proud of its voluntary status, and that its great traditions could not have been maintained without the willing enthusiasm of its honorary workers; but I should like to take this oppor- tunity of thanking them for their work throughout the year, and of sending a message of good wishes to them, and to the men of the life-boat fleet. (Applause.) Presentation to the Princess Alexandra Sir Godfrey Baring said: I hope your Royal Highness will allow me, very irregularly, to break into these proceedings in order to made a little presenta- tion. The Committee of Management are anxious to present a very small memento to Princess Alexandra in remembrance of her first public meeting. We are deeply honoured that the Princess has chosen the Life-boat Institution for her first appearance on a public platform. The Princess has informed me that she has never been out in a life-boat.

We must see that that is remedied before very long. The Princess will find it a very exhilarating experience to go out in a life- boat, perhaps in a gale wind. (Applause.) Sir Godfrey Baring then presented to the Princess Alexandra a silver model of a life-boat.

Lord Waverley It is my privilege this afternoon to propose a resolution, which will be supported by my friend, the Right Hon. Alfred Barnes. I will read the resolution in a moment, but before I do so I would venture to claim just a few minutes of your time whilst I tell you something about the work of this truly remarkable Institution.

The outstanding fact about the work of the Life-boat Service today is that it is busier than it has ever been in time of peace.

Of course the busiest time in its whole history, as well as the most dangerous, was the six years of the war, 1939 to 1945. That was to be expected. During those years its boats went out on an average 664 times a year.

In the six years before the war the average was 411. During the six years since the war ended the average has fallen. That again was to be expected. But it is still far above the average before the war. It is in fact 596. That is 185 more than before the war, and only 68 less than during the war.

One can see therefore that the service was never more needed than it is today.

Not only does the work go on and increase, but the dangers remain. They are always there, and when again and again life-boatmen come triumphantly through them it is very easy for the public to forget them. Last year, as you have heard, one life-boatman lost his life. That only one life was lost in the rescue of 350 lives, in spite of the perils faced in a year of outstanding gallantry, is a very high tribute both to the quality of the boats and to the spirit of the men who man them. (Applause.) The Institution is rebuilding its fleet. Her Royal Highness has told you something about that. Its boats are more powerful; they have a wider range of action; they are better equipped than ever before; and today 153 motor life-boats are doing the work of 276 pulling and sailing life-boats and four steam life-boats which were stationed round the coast forty-two years ago, when the first of the motor life-boats was built. The pulling and sailing life-boats of that time were open boats. Today the larger life-boats have a cabin below decks, a deck-cabin for the rescued, and a wireless cabin. In place of oars and sails they have an engine-room with two 60 horse-power or 40 horse-power diesel engines. To those who knew the life-boats of fifty years ago the modern life- boats would not be recognisable. Yet in the essentials which make them both life-boats—• their lines, their construction, their aircases which keep them afloat when damaged and make them unsinkable—the life-boats today and at the beginning of the century are the same.

At the beginning of the century the Insti- tution could accept a gift of £1,000 and out of it not only build a life-boat but endow it in perpetuity. Today the smallest life-boat costs £13,000. In the first year of the century the Institution spent in rewards, pensions and other payments to its crews and launchers—to those on the coast who do the actual work of rescue—£25,000.

Last year it spent £114,000. In the first year of the century its total cost was £111,000.

Last year it was £717,000.

In spite of all the changes and developments in its work during the last fifty years, in fact during the century and a quarter since it was founded, the Institution is today, like its life-boats themselves, in essentials the same as when it was founded. It is in 1952 exactly as its founder planned it in 1823. It is still a voluntary service. The great majority of the 2,000 men of its crews are volunteers, rewarded for every occasion on which they go to sea in the life-boats, but earning their living in other ways, bound by no contract, risking their lives of their own free will. It is administered by volun- tary committees, and the whole of its revenue comes from voluntary gifts. It is a remark- able example of the enthusiasm, energy and adaptability of voluntary effort. Most re- markable of all, it has been left with the approval of all parties to carry on an essen- tial national system. (Appl mse.) This is a brief description of what I am sure you will agree is a very remarkable service, a national service maintained on a voluntary basis, something distinctively British of which we have every reason to be proud. I have always maintained that such success as we have had in the development of truly democratic institutions in this country— and we and those nations and States that share our traditions have a record of achieve- ment in this respect not parallelled anywhere else in the world—is attributable to two causes, our system of local self-government and our tradition of voluntary service. Of the latter you have here an outstanding example. (Applause.) The resolution is: " That this Meeting, fully recognising the important services of the Royal National Life-boat Institution, in its national work of life-saving, desires to record its hearty appreciation of the gallantry of the Coxswains and Crews of the Institu- tion's life-boats, and its deep obligation to the Local Committees, Honorary Secretaries, and Honorary Treasurers of all Station Branches, and to the Honorary Officers and hundreds of Voluntary Members of the Financial Branches and of the Ladies' Life- boat Guild in the work of raising funds to maintain the Service." I beg to move.

(Applause.) Mr. Alfred Barnes I have always wanted an opportunity to express publicly my appreciation of life-boat crews and of those people who have helped to maintain this service. Lord Waverley with whom I have been associated in many other ways, with his remarkable gift of interpreting an institution or a service, has placed very vividly before this gathering, in the most dramatic way, the work and the character, the spirit and the quality of our Life-boat Institution. May I, instead of quoting similar data, become the voice of many millions of citizens of this countrywho may not be intimately and daily assoc- iated with it, but from time to time contact it in a more or less casual way, and then realise, as we often do, in this country, how deeply entrenched in the instincts of every one of us are certain traditional movements that at many times we are quite unconscious of? When I was Minister of Transport the other two complementary services, the Coast- guard and Trinity House, which are directly linked with the department of the Life-boat Service as more or less connected organisa- tions, were often before me, not in direct administration but because of the work which they were doing around our coasts.

In other ways I have had the good fortune to have a more direct citizen's contact with the work of our life-boat crews, because I have the privilege of living right on the sea coast, on our Essex coast, and in the village in which I live we have both a coastguard station and a life-boat crew. I should like to say, as one who has spent many years in public life and has experienced many thrills from time to time, that I never experience any thrill so much as I do when the rocket calls the life-boat into action. It is a remark- able thing, I always feel, in a holiday centre, where thousands of people come from our crowded industrial cities to get relaxation and enjoyment by the sea, it is a remarkable thing—and I have witnessed it and mingled with them in the middle of the night when the life-boat has been called out—to see them turn out of their beds in their thousands to stand on the sea-shore and look out over the blackness of the sea, and I have often •wondered what their thoughts might be.

You can see them trying to follow that crew, appreciating the hazards and entering into the spirit of this organisation.

That brings me to a note that has run through all the speeches here this afternoon, and it is that the quality and the spirit of this organisation rests essentially on its voluntary character. (Applause.) It was often put to me when I was a Minister, ' Would it not be better for the Life-boat Institution to be like the Coastguard and Trinity House, part of a State Department?' My emphatic answer has always been ' Certainly not.' (Applause.) I am sure that a good deal of the quality of this spirit would depart with any change of that character, and I echo firmly and sincerely the views that Lord Waverley has expressed on that point.

There is too little voluntary work in our societies and in our systems today, and here is an institution of this kind, which is one of the proudest and, I think, one of the finest examples we have of British volun- tarily, efficiently, economically organised services. We should very tenaciously defend and safeguard such an institution.

(Applause.) I join with Lord Waverley in hearty and sincere thanks and appreciation to the coxswains and life-boat crews, the local committees, their officers, the Ladies' Life- boat Guild, in fact all who play their part in making this Institution a proud British possession. (Applause.) The Resolution was carried by acclamation.

Presentations to Honorary Workers The Secretary of the Institution said: Since the last annual Meeting the gold badge, which is given only for distinguished service has been awarded to fifteen honorary workers. The following are present this afternoon to receive their badges: MRS. A. MACINTYRE, OF AIRDRIE.

MRS. OSCAR HENDERSON, OF BELFAST.

Miss T. HAYLETT, OF CAISTER.

MR. C. ERNEST LINK, OF THE CITY OF LONDON MRS. W. HEATON, OF CLITHEROE.

Miss I. BAINBRIDGE, OF EASTBOURNE.

Miss T. BLOOMFIELD, OF GREAT YARMOUTH MRS. H. J. ADDISON, OF HOLYHEAD.

DR. C. W. PRESTON-HILLARY, OF NOTTING- HAM.

MRS. L. M. EASTWOOD, OF OLDHAM.

MRS. G. DOGGART, OF SELSEY.

Vote of Thanks to the Duchess of Kent A vote of thanks to the Duchess of Kent was proposed by Captain Guy D. Fansbawe, R.N., a vice-president of the Institution, and seconded by Commander Oscar Henderson, C.V.O., C.B.E., D.S.O., R.N., a member of the Committee of Management of the Insti- tution. It was carried with acclamation and three cheers were given for the Duchess.

After the Meeting After the meeting the Duchess of Kent and the Princess Alexandra met and talked to the twelve medallists.

They then had tea at the Central Hall with the principal guests.

The.medallists, and the members of their families who had come with them to the meeting, were entertained to tea at the House of Lords by members of the House who are mem- bers of the Committee of Management, Commodore Lord Howe, R.N.V.R., the Marquess Camden, the Lord Saltoun, the Lord Winster, the Lord Ammon and Captain the Lord Ailwyn, R.N.

The honorary workers who had received the gold badge were enter- tained to tea at the House of Commons by Air-Commodore A. V. Harvey, R.N., M.P., a member of the Commit- tee of Management.

In the evening the twelve medallists and their families went to the Victoria Palace to see "Knights of Madness." In the interval Mr. Bud Flanagan, the leader of the Crazy Gang welcomed them from the stage. He then asked the men to stand up in their boxes, the spotlights were turned on them, and the audience cheered them..