THE LIFE-BOAT FLEET 155 Motor Life-boats 1 Harbour Pulling Life-boat LIVES RESCUED from the foundation of the Life-boat Service in 1824 to 30th September, 1956 80,491 Notes of the Quarter THE summer months of 1956 were exceptionally arduous ones for the crews of life-boat stations all round the coasts of Britain and Ireland. It was the busiest July in the whole history of the service, with 129 launches compared with the previous record for July of 78 in 1952. August was busier still, with 144 launches compared with the previous record of 113 in August 1940. In July no fewer than 153 lives were rescued, more than 100 of them in one period of twenty- four hours between the 28th and the 29th of July. A full account of the activities of this memorable day appears on page 322.

By the end of August more lives had been rescued by life-boats in 1956 than in the whole of 1955, and by the end of September life-boats had been launched on service more often than in the whole of the previous year.

Already during 1956 life-boats have been launched on service more often than in any other year in time of peace.

Hitherto the busiest year apart from 1940 was 1954, with 668 launches on service. This figure was passed when the Flamborough life-boat put out on the 14th of November to escort the local fishing fleet to harbour. It is perhaps significant that this huge increase in work has come at a time when a helicopter service is already well established around our coasts.

The figures for 1956 offer the most conclusive answer to those who believe that helicopters are beginning sub- stantially to reduce the work of life- boats.

SERVICES TO YACHTSMEN Of the 107 lives rescued during the twenty-four hours from the 28th to the 29th of July no fewer than 88 were from yachts, a number of those rescued being children. A multiplicity of services to yachts has been a regular feature of the work of the life-boats during the summer months for a number of years, and it is gratifying to record that increasing appreciation of the services rendered by life-boats is now being shown by yachtsmen.

For example, the flag officers and committee of the Royal Ocean Racing Club expressed to the Institution their appreciation of the help given by life- boats to the yachtsmen who took part in the Channel race on the 27th of July. The Secretary of the Royal Ocean Racing Club, in conveying the committee's decision, stated that the club had had many messages of appreciation. The Council of the Royal Yachting Association, in making a donation, also expressed its appre- ciation of "the splendid services rendered by life-boat crews to yachts- men in the past summer." NEW AWARDS FOR HONORARY WORKERS The Committee of Management has decided to institute a silver badge as an award for honorary workers who have given exceptionally long and valuable service to the Institution.

The silver badge will normally be awarded in cases where hitherto the award has taken the form of a record of thanks or a statuette. A bar to the gold badge is also to be introduced.

This distinction will rank next in order to that of appointment as an honorary life governor, which is the highest award the Institution can con- fer on an honorary worker.

SMALL LOTTERIES The Small Lotteries and Gaming Act, 1956, which is now in force, will enable branches to stage certain lot- teries on behalf of the Institution which but for the passing of the Act would have been illegal. A number of clauses in the Act, however, operate to restrict the scope and extent of these lotteries. These clauses provide that no prize shall exceed £100 in amount or value; that the maximum charge allowable for a ticket is one shilling and that the same charge must be made for every ticket; that no tickets may be sold by or to anyone under sixteen years of age; and that the amount allowable for expenses is either the actual amount incurred or ten per cent of the proceeds, which- ever is the less. District Organising Secretaries have registered with the local authorities concerned for their respective areas. The Act provides that the total value of all tickets sold or on sale in all lotteries in a registered area shall at no time exceed £750. The Small Lotteries arid Gaining Act, 1956, does not apply to the type of lottery which was legal before the act came into force.

NEW PUBLICATION A new booklet entitled The Heroic Story of the Life-boat Service has just been published by Pitkin Pictorials Limited. The booklet briefly recounts the history of the service from the establishment of the first life-boat station at Bamburgh in Northumber- land in the late eighteenth century down to the present time. It is pro- fusely illustrated with more than eighty photographs showing outstand- ing services, the progress of design and construction of life-boats and some of the outstanding coxswains in the service's history. Copies (2.9. 6d. each) can be obtained from Life-boat House or from branches. On every copy sold through the Institution lOd. goes to the Institution's funds. The book- let will also be on sale at life-boat houses in the summer months..