THE summer of 1959 has been officially described by the Meteorological Office as the driest since accurate records of rainfall began to be kept more than two hundred years ago, yet it was also the busiest summer the life-boat service has known in peace or in war since the Institution was founded in 1824.

Between the 1st of April and the 30th of September life-boats were launched on service no fewer than 547 times.

The previous record figure for these months was established in 1956, when life-boats were launched on service 495 times during the summer. Even in 1940, the year of the Battle of Britain, life-boats were called out on service between 1st of April and 30th of September only 419 times. I These remarkable figures confirm a trend which has been increasingly evident in recent years of a tremendous growth in the work which life-boat crews are called upon to do during the summer months. Yet it is when the summer ends that the most exacting tests of seamanship and endurance are liable to come. Not surprisingly the fine dry summer was followed by severe autumn gales, and before October ended life-boat crews from many stations carried out rescues in exception- ally severe conditions. Detailed accounts of these will appear in the next number of the Life-boat.

In somewhat unhappy contrast with the impressive record of life-boat activity in 1959 is the regrettable fact that figures so far available make it clear that the Institution's financial receipts in 1959 will be appreciably less than in 1958.

NEW OAKLEY LIFE-BOATS The Committee of Management has decided to build more life-boats of the 37-feet Oakley self-righting type. The first life-boat of this type came into the service of the Institution in the summer of 1958. She is now stationed at Scarborough and has fulfilled the demands made upon her up to now to the satisfaction of all. Details of this boat were given in the September 1958 number of the Life-boat on page 91.

One of the new Oakley life-boats is being built at Cowes and the other at Littlehampton. Both are expected to be completed in the summer of 1961, but neither has yet been allocated to any particular station. A munificent gift of £25,000 from the Gulbenkian Foundation will be applied towards the cost of one of the boats.

GOLD MEDAL ANNUITY The annuity paid to holders of the Institution's gold medal has been in- creased from £10 a year to £100 a year.

A similar decision was taken not long ago by the Government when fixing the annuity paid to holders of the Victoria Cross.

There are today only five coxswains alive who have received the Institution's highest award for gallantry. Ex-Cox- swain Robert Cross of the Humber has the remarkable distinction of having been awarded the gold medal and bar.

Other holders of the gold medal are ex-Coxswains William Bennison of Hartlepool, Thomas King of St. Helier, Patrick Murphy of Newcastle, County Down, and Patrick Sliney of Bally- cotton. Ex-Coxswain King is the only man to have received a gold medal since the end of the last war. Mrs.

Robert Patton, widow of the former Runswick coxswain, holds the gold medal which was awarded to her husband posthumously.

MODIFICATION OF LIFE-BELTS In 1958 extensive tests of the Institu- tion's standard life-belts were carried out after reports had been received from the Danish Ministry of Commerce of the adverse effect of oil on kapok in life-belts.

The results of these tests, which vindicated the Institution's policy in its choice of life-belts, were published in the March 1958 number of the Life-boat on page 5. Since then further tests have been carried out by Professor E. A.

Pask, a member of the Committee of Management. These tests have con- firmed that when the canvas of the Institution's standard life-belt is wet the effects of oil on the kapok are not such as to affect adversely the efficiency of the life-belt. On the other hand, by placing a life-belt directly in fuel oil before the canvas has been allowed to become wet the buoyancy of the life- belt can be appreciably decreased.

To ensure the absolute reliability of its life-belts the Institution has decided to issue new ones to all stations ; the kapok in each pocket of these belts is now encased in a sealed envelope of polyvinylchloride sheeting. New regula- tions on this particular subject were recently issued by the Ministry of Transport, and this method of protect- ing kapok from the effects of oil does, of course, conform with the regulations fully. These new life-belts are now being issued, and as an interim measure before new life-belts have been sent to all stations instructions have been issued that the canvas of unmodified life-belts should be soaked with water before they are put on.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING The annual general meeting of the governors of the Institution, when the Institution's annual report and accounts are submitted, will take place in 1960 at the Central Hall, Westminster, on Wednesday, the 30th of March, begin- ning at 3 p.m. Those members of life- boat crews and others to whom medals for gallantry have been awarded since the holding of the last annual meeting will be invited to attend to receive their medals, and other awards will also be made to honorary workers for the Institution..