A competition, open to secondary schoolboys and schoolgirls under the age of sixteen, for an essay on the subject of the Life-boat Service was held this year. The competition had been held regularly before the war, but it had not been revived since 1939. The subject set was: "A difficult and dangerous rescue is carried out by a life-boat. You are asked to describe the experiences of the coxswain from the moment the life-boat is called out to the day, months later, when he is presented with a medal for gallantry." The first prize for Great Britain and Ireland was awarded to Lesley Perry, a fourteen-year-old girl of West Norfolk and King's Lynn High School for Girls.

Her essay is reproduced below..