(Honorary Secretary, Cullercoats) EVERYWHERE in north-east England, and far beyond, "Bella, the Life-boat Lady "is known. Mrs. Bella Mattison is the nationally known character who epitomises the wives of fishermen everywhere, and who is the last and greatest representative of a disappear- ing race.

"Bella," as she is known from the highest to the humblest in the land, was born in North Shields on the 1st of June seventy-seven years ago. She moved to the famous neighbouring fishing village of Cullercoats when she married at the age of twenty, and be- came one of the celebrated fisherwives who "carried the creel." For long, long years, far back beyond the days of mechanical transport, the fisher- wives of Cullercoats tramped many miles a day through all weathers, bear- ing the heavy creel on their backs, selling the harvest of the sea. The Cullercoats fisherwives costume con- sisting of many skirts, wonderfully tucked and worked and crowned by beautiful silk shawls, aroused the ad- miration of artists. Bella, the last owner of this traditional dress, is much in demand to exhibit her costume which has also been borrowed for many displays and pageants. Sailors, far across the seas, remember "Bella the Life-boat Lady", and many are the wonderful shawls from foreign climes which have been sent to her Culler- coats home.

Last Survivor Her work for the Cullercoats and Whitley Bay branch of the Life-boat Service started when she took out her first collecting box on the 4th of August, 1922. Twenty-six fisherwives were collecting then, but Bella is the last survivor. Her service, purely vol- untary, has gone on unbroken since that August day. At the age of seventy- seven, her energy, and her pride in the service, burn as strongly as ever, and throughout the whole of the summer, from April to October, from morn till night, she is to be found with her little life-boat collecting box—on the prome- nade, the beaches, at flower shows and anywhere she feels a contribution can be obtained. Summer holiday makers seek her out; hotels and boarding houses ask her to call so that their guests may meet her and have the privilage of seeing the last of the traditional fisherwives and listen to her happy chuckle and her ever present humour. Regular holidaymakers feel that something is missing ii; Bella has not greeted them during their holiday by the sea. Wherever she goes, and whatever the cost, Bella never asks for one penny for expenses.

Now approaching her eightieth year she still covers prodigious distances for the service which she loves.

While life-boats are her first love she has found time for many other causes. A signed tribute from the Duke of Gloucester hangs on her living room wall—a tribute to her war time work for the Red Cross and St. John organisations. For her services to the Tynemouth Infirmary she was made a Life Governor in 1932. She was pre- sented to and thanked by the Dowager Marchioness of Reading for her work for the W.V.S. The Duchess of Northumberland thanked her for her work for the Cancer Campaign. The Missions to Seamen have honoured her.

Part of Grace Darling Many years ago Bella took the part of Grace Darling in a pageant at the Albert Hall. When B.B.C.'s "Down Your Way" visited Whitley Bay, Bella figured prominently in Mr.

Richard Dimbleby's programme.

"Picture Post" wrote of her when featuring the life-boats of the north- east coast.

Long ago the Institution recognised the sterling work of this lovable old lady when she was awarded the gold brooch in 1942—the third gold brooch to eome to Cullercoats. The culmina- tion of Bella's life was the visit of Her Majesty the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh to the north-east coast in October 1954, when Bella received an invitation from the Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland to be a guest at the Plaza ballroom, Tynemouth, when Her Majesty received the various dignitaries. The invitation card, and the official card of admittance, beau- tifully mounted in twin silver frames, hold the place of honour in Bella's home.

Throughout her long career of devotion to the life-boat cause Bella has now collected, single-handed, the amazing sum of over £4,000. Every week throughout the summer, she regularly fills (and fills so completely that not another coin can be put in) five or six collecting boxes. When most ladies of seventy-seven years want only to take life quietly, Bella goes on from strength to strength, devoting every possible minute to the work to which she has dedicated her life.

In years to come, "Bella the Life- boat Lady" from the little village of Cullercoats may, for her own work, become just as much a legend and a name to be remembered as the charac- ter she portrayed so many years ago — Grace Darling..