Eastbourne, and Hastings, Sussex.— At 11.54 on the night of the 26th of April, 1954, the coastguard telephoned the Eastbourne life-boat station to say the R.A.F. station at Worthing had reported that two airmen were baling out of a Meteor aircraft two miles south-east of Beachy Head. At 12.29 the life-boat Beryl Tollemaehe was launched. She searched in a rough sea and strong north-easterly breeze and at 1.50 found an injured airman in a rubber dinghy one mile west of Bexhill. The life-boat rescued him, took him to Eastbourne, and then resumed the search for the second man. The Hastings life-boat M.T.C.

had also been launched at 1.34, and both life-boats searched widely. The Eastbourne life-boat found a parachute one and a half miles south-west ofBexhill, but no trace of the other airman was seen. The Hastings life- boat reached her station again at 7.30 and the Eastbourne life-boat arrived at Eastbourne at 7.50.—Rewards: Hastings, £31 8s. &d.\ Eastbourne, £29 4s. The airman wrote a letter of thanks, in which he stated: "Up till then I had never thought about the work the Life-boat Service do. But when that life-boat picked me up after being in my dinghy for two hours it was certainly the most welcome sight in the world.".