SIR GODFREY BARING, who retired from the Committee of Management in 1956 after having served on the Committee for forty-five years and having been the Committee's Chairman for thirty-three years, died on the 24th of November, 1957. Sir Godfrey filled the office of Chairman longer than any of his predecessors. When he retired a tribute to his outstanding services to the cause of life-saving at sea appeared in the June, 1956, number of the Life-boat.

Sir Godfrey Baring was born in London in 1871. He was educated at Eton, and after working in Messrs.

Baring Brothers' Bank he began a long career of political and public service at an early age. In 1894 he was elected a member of the Cowes District Council and in 1896 a member of the Isle of Wight County Council. When only twenty-seven years old he became Chairman of the County Council, a position he retained for fifty-one years.

In 1900 he sought to enter Parliament for the first time but was defeated by the rival candidate for the Isle of Wight constituency, Captain J. E. B.

Seely, D.S.O. Seely later became a major-general and was raised to the peerage as Lord Mottistone, and it is a curious fact that while Sir Godfrey Baring later became the Chairman of the Institution's Committee of Management, Seely became coxswain of the Brooke life-boat and wrote a book on his experiences entitled Launch.Sir Godfrey Baring was returned to Parliament in 1906 as M.P. for the Isle of Wight, and in 1911 as M.P. for the Barnstaple division of Devonshire.

He filled the posts successively of Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Under Secretary for the Colonies, and Parliamentary Private Secretary to the President of the Board of Education in the Liberal administration. He was created a baronet in 1911.

Among other offices and positions which he filled with distinction were those of Deputy Lieutenant for Hampshire, High Sheriff of the county, chairman of the Bench of Magistrates and L.C.C. alderman.

Sir Godfrey was a keen yachtsman and cricketer and was the senior member of the Royal Yacht Squadron. At his home " Nubia", in the Isle of Wight, he frequently entertained royalty.

The funeral service took place on the 28th of November at Holy Trinity Church, where Sir Godfrey had been a churchwarden and a constant worshipper.

Captain Guy D. Fanshawe, R.N., vice-president and a member of the Committee of Management, Colonel A. D. Burnett Brown, secretary of the Institution, Admiral Sir Francis and Lady Tottenham, and a number of members of the Institution's staff were present. Members of the crews of the Bembridge and Yarmouth lifeboats also attended the service. The Marquis Camden represented H.R.H.

the Duchess of Kent, President of the Institution..