AT 2.36 on the afternoon of the 21st of September, 1952, the sailing boat Tit Bit, of Shellness, with a man and a boy on board capsized one mile off Shellness, in the Isle of Sheppey.

There was a slight sea, and a westerly breeze, with occasional squalls.

A fifteen-year-old boy, Tony Met- calfe, saw the two people swimming in the sea and immediately put out by himself in a ten-feet outboard motor dinghy. He hauled the boy on board, but the man weighed eighteen stone and the dinghy sank under his efforts to get into her. The three of them then clung to the Tit Bit.

The volunteer-in-charge of the War- den Point Coastguard Station, Mr.

Wallace Colegate, commandeered a dinghy and put out, but half a mile off shore it capsized and he swam back to the beach. A retired naval officer, Commander V. Davis, also put out with his two sons in a sixteen-feet outboard motor dinghy, but the motor broke down and for the last two miles they had to row.

They rescued Tony Metcalfe and the other boy, who by then had been in the water for an hour.

Two relatives of Tony Metcalfe reached the position in a rowing-boat.

They found the man who had been on board the Tit Bit too heavy to get on board, but they succeeded in keeping hold of him. A visitor to the coast, Mr. Norman Morgan, also launched a dinghy, but his help was not needed. Eventually a fishing boat, the Southern Cross, with a crew of four, and the motor boat Audrey Russell, with police on board, arrived from Vhitstable. The Southern Cross rescued the man and took the Tit Bit in tow. The help of the Audrey Russell was not needed.

The Institution made these awards: To MR. TONY METCALFE, the bronze medal for gallantry with a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum and framed; To Commander Davis and his two sons, a letter of appreciation and £3; To Mr. Colegate and Mr. Morgan, letters of appreciation; To the man in charge of the Audrey Russell, £l and 10s. for fuel used.