JAMES WICKHAM, a former Rosslare Harbour coxswain, died on the 6th of December, 1953, at the age of 78.

Coxswain Wickham was a son of the late Coxswain Thomas Wickham of the Wexford life-boat. He himself succeeded his brother, Edward, as coxswain in 1925. When the Wexford station was closed in 1928 he continued as coxswain of the Rosslare Harbour life-boat until he retired in 1941.

Coxswain Wickham twice won the silver medal for bravery, the first time in 1914 for the rescue from the schooner Mexico. On that occasion he and another life-boatman, WTilliam Duggan, volunteered to man a dinghy to rescue some Norwegian sailors who had been clinging to the Keeragh rocks for two days. The dinghy was pierced by a rock on the journey out, but Wickham stuffed the hole with a loaf of bread wrapped in an oilskin.

His second service clasp was for the rescue of five men from the schooner Mounibleary, of Plymouth, on the 20th of October, 1929, in a gale. This was only one of seven services carried out by the Rosslare Harbour life-boat in one month, during which 29 lives were rescued.

For his work of rescuing life at sea he was decorated by five countries: Great Britain, Eire, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway. His Irish award was the gold medal of the Gaelic Athletic Association. He and Duggan were the only two men to win this award outside the field of sport.

His son, J. T. Wickham, is at present a motor mechanic of the Rosslare Har- bour life-boat..