THE famous Ramsgate life-boat Pru- dential left the service of the Institu- tion in November when she was sold to Mr. F. H. W. Haywood, a London architect. The Institution's flag was struck for the last time aboard the Prudential at a ceremony on Saturday, the 21st of November. A B.B.C.

reporter, Mr. Douglas Willis, recorded an interview with the coxswain, Arthur Verrion, and a member of the crew, and the ceremony was photographed by B.B.C. television cameramen.

After the ceremony the crew, offi- cials and the press were invited by the Mayor of Ramsgate, Councillor E. G.

Butcher, to the Mayor's Parlour.

The Prudential had a magnificent record between 1926, when she was first launched, and 1953. During those years she was launched on service 276 times and rescued 330 lives.

The Prudential was the first of the Institution's life-boats to set out for Dunkirk, under her coxswain Howard Primrose Knight, in May 1940 to help in the evacuation. In all she helped to bring off some 2,800 men.

The last medal service of the Pru- dential was that of the rescue from the Western Farmer, of New York, on the 20th of August, 1952. The Western Farmer had broken in two, and Coxswain Douglas Kirkaldie brought the life-boat alongside the stern part, although it was clear that it might turn over at any moment on top of the life-boat. For this service he won the bronze medal for gallantry.

The Prudential was one of four life- boats which took part in the Corona- tion Review of the Fleet by Her Majesty the Queen at Spithead on the 15th of June, 1953..