THE annual meeting was held at the Central Hall, Westminster, on the 23rd of March, 1954, with Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., K.B.E., chairman of the Committee of Management, in the chair.

H.R.H. the Princess Royal pre- sented the medals for gallantry, and other awards, and gave an address.

The Right Hon. Clement Davies, Q.C., M.P., proposed and the Right Hon. Sir Norman Birkett, Q.C., J.P., seconded the resolution of gratitude to the coxswains and crews of the life- boats, the honorary officers and com- mittee of the stations, and the honor- ary officers and members of the finan- cial branches and Ladies' Life-boat Guild. Lord Saltoun, M.C., and Major General R. E. Laycock, C.B., D.S.O., members of the Committee of Manage- ment, proposed and seconded the vote of thanks to the Princess Royal.

Supporting the Princess Royal on the platform were the Mayor and Mayoress of Westminster, the Chair- man of the London County Council, the Mayors and Mayoresses of over forty boroughs where there are branches, representatives of the Ministry of Transport, the Coastguard, the Civil Service Life-boat Fund, the Shipwrecked Mariners Society, vice- presidents and honorary life-governors of the Institution, donors of life-boats or their representatives, members of the Committee of Management of the Institution and the chairman and deputy-chairman of the Central Lon- don Women's Committee.

The Chairman's Address Sir Godfrey Baring said: We are meeting today to receive the report on the work of the Royal National Life-boat Institution in 1953. That report is now in your hands. It tells of a year of grave happenings and great achievements in the Life-boat Service.

The great achievements of saving 351 men, women and children from death at sea were far too numerous for me to mention in detail.

Let me say only that even more lives were rescued by our life-boats in 1953 than the year before. Yet 1952 had been the busiest year in time of peace in the whole history of the Institution since it was founded in 1824.

These achievements were won at a heavy cost. That is why I have spoken of grave happenings. When we met in this hall a year ago, it was only about a month after the terrible disaster at Praserburgh when six life-boatmen lost their lives. Since then there has been another tragic disaster at Arbroath. In all in 1953 fourteen life-boat- men gave their lives in the service of their fellow men. All fourteen were Scottish life- boatmen.

In Scotland, too, we have suffered another serious loss by the death of the Duke of Montrose, who was for many years Treasurer of the Institution and Chairman of the Scot- tish Life-boat Council. We feel his loss greatly, for he was indeed a wonderful servant and labourer for this Institution.

Conscious though we are of what we have suffered, we are today meeting also for happier purposes. One of these is the presentation of medals for outstanding bravery. We set a high standard in the conferring of our medals for gallantry. It is right that we should do so, and the medals to be presented today have been truly and hardly earned.

All the medallists whom we are about to acclaim come this year from Wales.

To Scotland in 1953 came the tragedy, to Wales has come the special glory. But throughout these islands, in England, Scot- land and Wales, in the whole of Ireland and in the Channel Islands the story of the Life- boat Service has been one of unceasing and splendid work.

I spoke a moment ago of happier purposes, and a very happy task which has fallen to me today is that of extending a most respect- ful and heartfelt welcome to H.R.H. the Princess Royal, who is honouring us with her presence and who has kindly consented to present the medals. Like so many other members of the Royal Family, Her Royal Highness has a long association with the Life-boat Service, more especially in the north-east of England, and it is truly a great pleasure for us to have her with us today.

I am also delighted to welcome our two guest speakers. Last year the principal speaker was a Conservative and one of Her Majesty's Ministers. His admirable speech was most ably seconded by a prominent member of the Labour party. This year we have as our guest speakers two Liberals.

This seems to me a very proper way of holding the balance of power.

In Mr. Clement Davies we have not only a distinguished Liberal, but the leader of that party in the House of Commons. Mr, Clement Davies has represented Montgom- eryshire in Parliament since 1929, and he is also a most distinguished advocate. In Sir Norman Birkett we have another of the great advocates of our time—indeed, all time— and he too has been a Member of Parliament, in his case for a Nottinghamshire constit- uency.

Both these gentlemen are justly famous as speakers, and in all seriousness I would say that the fact that we have Mr. Clement Davies and Sir Norman Birkett with us this afternoon, just as we had Mr. J. P. L. Thomas and Lord Latham last year, proves—if it needed to be proved—that this Institution is happily free from any political bias or political entanglement. Our work is a purely humanitarian one. We exist for one purpose only, that of saving life at sea. The report which is now in your hands shcrws how, in 1953, that task was carried out.

The report and accounts are before you.

I now formally move their adoption.

The Report, Accounts and Elections The report and accounts for 1953 were adopted, and the President, vice-presidents, treasurer and other members of the Commit- tee of Management and the auditors were elected.

Presentation of Medals The Secretary read the account of a service by the Tenby, Pembrokeshire, life-boat.

The Princess Royal then presented the follow- ing medals: To COXSWAIN THOMAS RICHARDS, OF TKNBY, the silver medal for the rescue of seven men from the St. Gowan lightvessel; To BOWMAN WILLIAM THOMAS, OF TENBY, the bronze medal for the same service; To MOTOR MECHANIC WILLIAM ROGERS, OF TENBY, the bronze medal for the same service.

The Princess Royal H.R.H. the Princess Royal then spoke as follows: You who are with me in this hall today are nearly all associated in one way or another with the Life-boat Service, and I feel sure you must, everyone of you, feel proud of that association. The year 1953, on which your Committee of Management are reporting today, was altogether a memorable one in the history of the Royal National Life-boat Institution.

The year was memorable for tragic reasons.

In 1953 fourteen life-boatmen gave their lives in the service of their fellow men. All fourteen were members of Scottish crews: six from Fraserburgh, six from Arbroath, and two from Islay. It is more than thirty years since as many life-boatmen lost their lives on service in any one year.

The year was also memorable for the terrible hardships which wind and weather inflicted upon us. I remember being at sea myself when those terrible storms in the early part of the year occurred, and the storms were followed by floods whose effects were even more devastating. The damage done to life-boat stations, as to other pro- perty, was tremendous, and it is, I think, typical of the voluntary spirit of the Institu- tion that it has repaired that damage without turning to the Government or to the Lord Mayor's relief funds for any help whatever.

But the year was also memorable for happier reasons. Because of what the life- boats did 351 men, women and children were saved from death by drowning at sea. These people are the living" proofs of the true nature and value of the Service. The manner in which some of these lives have been rescued has already been told you in the account of the heroism of the Tenby life-boatmen, which has been so justly rewarded today.

I myself feel particularly proud of those life-boats with which I feel I have a personal association. Two life-boats, those at Pad- st*w and Hartlepool, have borne my name, and the crews of these life-boats between them have won one gold, three silver and six bronze medals.

I have also named three life-boats. These life-boats have been stationed at Scarborough, Bridlington and Redcar. The Scarborough and Bridlington life-boats between them rescued 75 lives, and last year the Redcar life-beat, which was named as recently as 1951, rescued 22 lives.

These life-boats which I have named on the north-east coast of England are only three of 155 motor life-boats which do service today around the coasts of England, Scotland, Wales, the whole of Ireland and the Channel Islands. The Service is a truly national one and also, by virtue of what it has done in the past year in going to the help of ships of sixteen foreign nations, we can claim with pride that it is an international service, rising high above the disputes and divisions between nations which cause so much unhappiness in the world today.

It has been a great pleasure for me to come here today to present these medals and to express something of the feeling of debt and gratitude which we owe to the crews of the life-boats and to those who, through their voluntary work, help to maintain this magni- ficent Service.

The Guest Speakers Mr. Clement Davies, moving the resolution of gratitude, said: The resolution that I have to move reads as follows: "That this meeting, fully recog- nising 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 Institution's life- boats, and its deep obligation to the local committees, honorary secretaries, and honor- ary treasurers of all station branches, and to the honorary officers and thousands of voluntary members of the financial branches and of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild in the work of raising funds to maintain the service." The resolution which I have the honour to propose, couched though it is in generous terms and felicitous phrases, cannot fail to express all that we feel in gratitude and admiration for the splendid deeds and noble services of these remarkable men, whose work, skill and gallantry is beyond praise and beyond the power of any resolution to acknowledge. For my own part I am all too conscious of the fact that in accepting the invitation of the Royal National Life-boat Institution to speak on this occasion and pay tribute to those men for all that they have done, and all that they are doing, I have undertaken a task of the utmost difficulty which I cannot hope adequately to perform.

Indeed, any such attempt by the most gifted speaker is doomed to failure. For who can find words of sufficient strength and grandeur to do justice to so splendid a subject? It is therefore in a spirit of profound humility, conscious of the great privilege that I enjoy in performing this honourable task, that I venture to utter these few words of thanksgiving as well as of praise for the glorious deeds of epic bravery that are daily carried out by these illustrious men, heroes of the sea.

Courage is a virtue that assumes many guises and plays many parts on the stage of human life. There is, if I may give instances, the calm, steady courage of the disciplined soldier who faces danger on the battlefield; there is the swaggering, hot-blooded courage of a bold buccaneer who seeks fame or fortune through adventure; there is another, the fierce black courage of the cornered man held at bay by enemies but who fights for his life with a sort of blind animal desperation.

There is again the strange wild courage that comes to each one of us, even the most timid of us, in moments of crisis when the lives of those we love, or the possession that we prize above our lives, is in danger. Then there is the superb complex courage of the cowardly man who manages to overcome fear.

Courage is a quality we all admire, what- ever form it takes, whether it be born of discipline or training, ambition or reverence, fear or desperation. But there is one form of courage superior to all these which makes our hearts glow and our pulses race at the mere thought of it. It is the supreme courage of the humane and selfless man who willingly and regularly risks his life to save the lives of others. It is that supreme courage of the British life-boatman, who is ready at all times and in all weathers to brave the appalling perils of the sea to rescue many victims from danger and from death.

Looking at the recent back numbers of the life-boat quarterly the other day, I was astonished to see how numerous, how varied and sustained are the demands that are made daily and nightly on the services of these men. Glancing at some of the headlines for just the month of December, 1953, is enough to show the extraordinary amount, the variety and the extent of these calls. Here are a few: "Exhausted men taken off rowing boat at Lowestoft"; "Three rescued in a dense fog at Moelfre"; "Float drifting with four children at St. Ives"; "Fishing boat on the reef at Peterhead"; "Injured man taken off the light vessel in the Humber "; " Steamer aground on the Goodwin Sands"; "Fifteen rescued from a Grimsby trawler at Wick"; "Seamen taken off a German trawler at Torbay"; "Motor boat's crew rescued at Eastbourne"; and "A life-boat stands by all night in a gale at Baltimore, County Cork." Those are a very few examples of the sort of work that these men are carrying out off the shores of these islands all the year round.

What an astonishing tale this is! A record of the manifold services of the Royal National Life-boat Institution.

We are informed in the Annual Report of which you have just heard that for the year 1953 the total number of lives saved during the year, for which the Institution paid rewards, was 446. The grand total of lives rescued since the Institution was founded some 130 years ago is 78,500. We are told that life-boats were launched during the course of the year no less than 598 times, and that the figure of lives rescued by life- boats is five higher than for 1952, although 1952 was the busiest year in time of peace in the long history of the Service.

What a thrill of pride, what a thrill of joy it gives us to read of such achievements! What a happy contrast is the record of saving, and saving against fearful odds, to the catalogue of casualties, fatal and other- wise, in peace and in war that one reads, and one gets so saddened by reading, in the newspapers! What a heartening message this brings and what a splendid example it furnishes to so many of us whose minds and spirits are darkened and weighed down by tales of destruction, cowardice or brutality or human baseness and human treachery! Here we have a noble record and here we salute the brave; their courage ever mounts with the occasion. Let us remember too that the Service is a purely humanitarian one, existing for no other purpose than that of saving life, and in this respect it does not make, and never has made, as Her Royal Highness has already said, any distinction between nationalities.

In 1953 life-boats went out to help 55 ships and 5 aircraft of no less than 1ft different foreign countries and rescued 41 lives. Britain has ever been the first to extend the hand of friendship to her neigh- bours, and to rescue and give refuge to the helpless and oppressed wherever possible, regardless of the distinctions of race or of nationality. This record of this great Insti- tution proves the strength and the vitality of this tradition.

Yet, as you have already heard, there is another side to the picture. The year's record also shows that the sea has lost none of its perils and abated nothing of its fury and its cruelty for those who dare to do battle with it. In the course of the year there were two major disasters and 14 life-boatmen lost their lives. Well, that is a terrible toll and our hearts go out in profound sympathy to those whom they loved. It is comforting, however, to know that what happened in 1953 was exceptional, and let us hope and let us pray that there will never be a recur- rence of such tragedies.

The finest and the best service is that which is given and given willingly and given enthusiastically. The Life-boat Service is a voluntary service; the crews are volunteers, ready to answer the call when danger threatens and when the life-boat puts out to sea. The workers who raise the money are volunteers and the money itself is voluntarily subscribed. There is no control by the State and no money comes from the State.

All is freely given and willingly given. And so to all committees, the secretaries, the treasurers, to all officers and to all every- where who work so cheerfully and enthus- iastically to raise the funds necessary for the Service we offer our most grateful thanks, and in doing so with our humble duty we acknowledge above all our deep obligation to Your Royal Highness, whom I may justly and rightly describe as the greatest volunteer of us all and the inspiration of us all.

Sir Norman Birkett Seconding the resolution, Sir Norman Birkett said: It is no conventional words that I use when I say that it gives me the greatest possible pleasure to second this resolution, and to acknowledge the honour I feel it to be to have been invited. I am bound to say that part of my pleasure is due to the fact that I have got an afternoon off from my ordinary job, and when my good friend, Clement Davies, was speaking I thought of that court where I sit every day. We sit as three Judges, and when one Judge has made what ve think is a very good judgment and has dealt with all the facts and all the law, and there is nothing else to be said, then we have a splendid formula that we use. We say: "I agree, and I have nothing to add." Some- times we vary it by saying: "I concur." Then again to relieve the monotony we say: "I am entirely of the same opinion." But «ven when we have said all that, we some- times add: "But out of respect to the learned Judge, whose judgment we have agreed with, I will just venture a few words." So perhaps I can say, out of respect to those who were kind enough to invite me and out of respect to this great audience: "I will just venture to add a few words by way of supplement." When Mr. Clement Davies was analysing the categories of courage, there was one category he forgot: the category of the man who tries to follow him after he has made his speech.

I am quite sure you will not expect me to repeat any of those statistics which have been so necessary and which have been so fully given, but in one sentence I would say this: all that he said in admiration of the work of the Institution covered by this comprehensive resolution I most warmly and heartily endorse.

This, as you will perceive, is a resolution of thanks to all who render service to the Royal National Life-boat Institution. There are degrees of service, as has been so well pointed out: the service that demands sometimes in the last resort the giving of your life, the service which is ready to confront danger at every moment, and the service done some- times out of sight; laborious service, detailed service, but all necessary to make up a great whole, so that this noble Institution, of which this country is so justly and so rightly proud, can work and operate to the fullest advantage.

What I will do for a very few minutes is to make one or two general observations, and the first is this. The Royal National Life-boat Institution is an Institution rightly dear to the hearts of all British people, primarily for this reason: the sea is part of our heritage here; it is by the sea that we have become great. You cannot read a history book of any kind without seeing, interwoven into the very thread and texture of our national life, that there has always been the sea. We have grown from a very small country to a mighty Commonwealth largely by the sea. It is by the sea that we live. At this moment, whilst we sit in comfort here, on all the seven seas of the world the ships come and go and bring to us the food whereby we live and the material whereby our industry lives. Everywhere and always in the past and in the present there is the sea. Always, of course, connected with the sea there is that element of danger.

We are a small island but we have an immense coastline, and it is upon our rocky, storm- bound coast that the true work of the Royal National Life-boat Institution is done. It is there where danger lies, and always in connection with this great heritage of the sea we have to remember the inevitable dangers that go with it.

Perhaps one of the most favourite hymns of our people, one certainly that is sung with the greatest fervour is "Eternal Father, strong to save, Whose Arm doth bind the restless wave, Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee for those in peril on the sea." And so it was that some 180 years ago in this great City of London, which is, after all, one of the greatest ports of the world, there were men of great humanitarian views, who met together and first founded this Institution, which has, year by year, grown in power and in strength. But when you think of some of the figures which Mr. Clement Davies cited, some of the figures that Her Royal Highness cited, some of the figures that were in the annual report, it is perfectly plain how widespread has become the bene- ficent work of this great Institution. Of course, when you speak of 14 lives lost, of 351 saved, or 446 saved, the figures themselves do not quite make the appeal that they ought to.

I very well remember a very great man opening an institution, a great hostel that was designed and built to save and redeem boys, to make them into good citizens. This great man, opening this great hall that had been built at such great expense, said: "If this great place, built at such cost, is only the means of saving one life it will have justified-itself." After the meeting some- body said to him: "Did you not rather exaggerate when you said that if it only saved one life, it will have justified itself?" "No," he said, "not if it were my boy." When vou make the thing personal, vou can realise "all that the 130 years of the life of this Institution have meant in simple human happiness. Why, there arc no words, as Mr. Davies said, in which the human tongue can express the admiration one feels.

What impressed me about this report was the variety of the work that is done by the life-boats: the work of rescuing the crews of shipwrecked vessels of all nationalities; the sending of a doctor in the remote Scottish Highlands, where, without the doctor, some life would have been lost; the saving of some child who was playing happily in the sea floating on a rubber dinghy and suddenly carried out to sea; the picking up of airmen in the water. The sum total of what all this means in human happiness to the father and the mother, for example, who saw their child in such dreadful danger and then, by the offices of this Institution and the courage of the life-boatmen, was saved—the sum total of that kind of happiness can never be written.

I think Mr. Davies did very well to empha- sise that which distinguishes the work of this Institution from so many others when he spoke of its voluntary character. It is the most extraordinary thing in these days when you read of the millions that are poured out from the Exchequer, for this institution or for that, for universities, for schools and for councils, that here is this great Institution, which is proud to stand and say: "We do all our work and always have done for over a century by the voluntary goodwill of those who are concerned." The purpose of this meeting is not merely to record the work that has been done in the past year, not merely to extend our thanks to those who have rendered notable service.

One of its purposes is that we should each gather from our fellowship one with another an increased devotion to this Service, so that the voluntary work of the Institution, with its rapidly mounting costs, shall never fail. For my own part I am quite satisfied that so long as our people are what they are, so long as this Service is what it is and has been, there will never be wanting the enthus- iastic support from all sorts and conditions of men.

Presentations to Honorary Workers The Secretary of the Institution said: Since the last annual meeting four honorary workers have been appointed Honorary Life Governors of the Institution. This is the highest honour which it can confer on an honorary worker, and the appointment is accompanied by a vellum signed by the President of the Institution.

Three of the four are here this afternoon: MRS. MILES THOKNEWILL, OF CENTRAL LONDON.

MR. S. WHITEHEAD, OF PRESTON.

MRS. M. E. PECOVER, OF THAME.

The gold badge, which is given only for distinguished service has been awarded to the following honorary workers: MRS. CONLEY RlLEY, OF AcCRINGTON.

MRS. E. LOCKING, OF CLEETHORPES.

COUNCILLOR MRS. A. E. CHAYFORD, OF CONGLETON.

Miss E. G. TAYLOR, OF CROMER.

Miss M. ROWE, OF EAST GRINSTEAD.

MR. S. VALENTINE, M.B.E., OF GIRVAN.

MRS. LAYCOCK, OF HUDDERSFIELD.

MRS. E. COCHRANE, B.E.M., OF SELBY.

Miss ANNIE FAIRHURST, OF WIGAN.

The Princess Royal presented the vellums and badges.

Resolutions of Thanks Lord Saltoun then spoke as follows.

I have to propose the following resolution: "Thatthe hearty thanks of this meeting be given to H.R.H. The Princess Royal for graciously presenting the awards at this the hundred and thirtieth annual general meeting of the Royal National Life-boat Institution." It is my happy fortune to try and express the pleasure and encouragement that we have derived from Your Royal Highness's presence here this afternoon, and to thank you for conferring our awards in a manner which has doubled their value to the recipients.

Your Royal Highness has been pleased to remark upon the very distinguished record gained by those boats which have the honour of bearing your name, and it is, indeed, a distinguished record: one gold, three silver and six bronze medals and vellums. We, too, have remarked upon it, and I cannot help feeling myself that with the name there was imparted also some portion of that inter- ested spirit which has always been the characteristic of every generation of that family to which Your Royal Highness belongs.

It is the spirit which commands opportunity.

We feel, and we are proud to feel, that the same spirit distinguishes all our life-boatmen on every part of the coast, and that they all thoroughly deserve the interest which Your Royal Highness is good enough to bestow, and for which we are most grateful. We shall all pass to our different tasks in our different capacities this afternoon with renewed vigour and assiduity from the pleasure and encouragement we have derived from Your Royal Highness's presence this afternoon.

This resolution was seconded by Major- General Laycock, who said: It is my privilege this afternoon to second the vote of thanks to Your Royal Highness which has been so ably proposed by Lord Saltoun, and I am certain that the very deep sincerity by which that expression of thanks is already endorsed by every single individual in this hall needs no further comment from myself.

Perhaps, however, Your Royal Highness, I may be allowed to repeat how very honoured indeed we are that you should have thought fit to have attended our Annual General Meeting and to have presented the awards.

As Your Royal Highness is no doubt aware we, of the Royal National Life-boat Institu- tion, are very proud indeed of our association with the Royal Family, and when a member of the Royal Family who, like yourself, has shown such active interest in us in the past and continues to give us proof positive that that interest is still very much alive today, we are all the more grateful to you.

After the Meeting In the evening the medallists and their families went to the Crazy Gang's show at the Victoria Palace. They were asked to stand in their box and were applauded by the audience..