THE portrait on the cover is a repro- duction of a painting by Claire Leonard, which was exhibited at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and which Mrs.

Leonard has kindly presented to the Royal National Life-boat Institution.

It is of Coxswain Harold Hayles of Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, who has beencoxswain since 1952. He first joined the Yarmouth crew in 1933 and was bowman from 1937 until 1944, when he became second coxswain. Since he joined the crew, Yarmouth life-boats have been launched on service 158 times and have rescued as many as 214 lives..