H.R.H. THE DUCHESS OF KENT, Presi- dent of the Institution, attended the annual general meeting of the governors of the Institution at the Central Hall, Westminster, on the 30th of March, 1960, and presented medals for gallantry and other awards. Reporting on the past year's work, Earl Howe, Chair- man of Management, said : " My first duty today is to report on a truly remarkable and memorable year in the history of the life-boat service.

Let me first give you a few facts to indicate what I mean. Last year our life-boats were called out on service no fewer than 866 times. Never before in time of peace have life-boats been called out so often ; the figure was exceeded only once in the past, and that was in 1940, the year of the Battle of Britain ; and this figure of 866 is some thirty per cent more than the average number of launches in the post-war years. But the really important figure is not that of the launches on service, but that of the people whose lives were saved. In 1959 our life-boats rescued 551 people from death at sea. This is nearly one hundred more than the average in the post-war years.

Fifteen Medallists " We must surely all of us remember the gales which blew so fiercely and so continuously in the last three months of last year, particularly in the north, and with the memory of those gales I would ask you to consider for a moment just what the conditions must have been in which so many of those lives were rescued. Those of you who attend this meeting regularly know that it is the normal practice for some half-a- dozen brave men to come up each year on to this platform. Their number is seldom more than about half-a-dozen because the standards which we set in conferring our medals are extremely high. We have not lowered those standards in any way, and yet this year there will be as many as fourteen men to whom Your Royal Highness will be presenting medals for gallantry, and one other whose medal has already been presented. We shall later hear the citations, and I feel sure that when you hear them you will use your imagination as to what the crews must have gone through and experience a thrill of pride that there are such men in our nation today.

" I joined the Royal National Life- boat Institution forty years ago, and in all that time I have never heard of a finer service than that of the Moelfre crew. Listen carefully to the details of the citation when it is read out, especially that of the coxswain, Richard Evans, who has been awarded the gold medal for gallantry. Only twenty- eight gold medals have been awarded in the last sixty years. It will there- fore be seen that the distinction is very rare indeed.

" It was during the last quarter of the year, when so many of these medals for gallantry were earned, that an event happened which brought the deepest sorrow to all of us connected with the life-boat service and indeed to many others besides. I am referring, of course, to the tragedy which occurred on the 8th of December, when the Broughty Ferry life-boat was launched during a full gale in a winter's night on the receipt of a report that a lightvessel was adrift. All the buoys marking the channel over the bar were out of posi- tion. The life-boat reported that she had cleared the bar notwithstanding and had seen a flare sent up by the light- vessel—and that was the last signal she made. As we all know, the life-boat capsized with the loss of her whole crew of eight. These men gave their lives in a gallant attempt to save others, and I know you will all wish me to express on this occasion our deepest sympathy with their families and indeed with the people at Broughty Ferry as a whole.

Inquiry into Disaster " Very naturally the Institution made a full and exhaustive inquiry into the circumstances of the disaster, and that inquiry has been published. Its find- ings can be read by all. The investiga- tion made it clear that the hull of the life-boat, her engines and equipment were in perfect order at the time the disaster occurred. The crew, and in- deed the Institution as a whole, had the fullest confidence in the coxswain. We do all in our power—and we make use of everything which money, materials and, above all, the skill of our designers can offer to improve our life-boats. We spare nothing in effort or expense, and | we are always ready to listen to advice and suggestions from any quarter, whether a Government research depart- ment or a private individual. We shall go on improving our designs and our equipment, but clearly we cannot control the forces of nature. Nobody has yet devised a ship or a boat which can be of any use and which is not liable to capsize in certain conditions of wind and sea and weather.

Note of Warning " At all our stations throughout the year our crews responded in the way which we have come to expect of them.

So indeed have our voluntary workers in other fields, many of whom are in this hall today, and to some of whom Your Royal Highness will shortly make presentations in recognition of their years of devoted work. Their efforts in raising money have been splendid in themselves and splendidly rewarded. Yet here I must sound a note of warning.

" As those who have studied the report will see, in 1959 our expenditure for the first time exceeded one million pounds. Since I became Chairman of your Committee of Management I have been happy to report year after year that we succeeded in balancing our budget. Each year the money that came in was always a little more than the money we had to spend. This year, I am sorry to say, I cannot make the same claim. Our income last year did not amount to as much as our expendi- ture : we were in the red, and we had to draw on our reserves. The reason for this was a sharp drop in the money received from legacies. No one can yet say whether this decline was exceptional or whether it is the begin- ning of a trend, but I certainly hope I shall not have to stand on this platform next year, or any other year, and say once again that notwithstanding all possible economies we failed to make ends meet. I know that you who work for us will do all you can, that you will increase your efforts and those of your friends if possible. But there is one other quarter to which I want to appeal, that of the business houses and other large enterprises which control charit- able funds. Do they, I sometimes wonder, do all they might to help us ? I know it may be said that such dona- tions should be made to causes which benefit the employees of these firms.

But surely the life-boat service may benefit an employee of any firm.

" Nowadays it is in the summer months that most calls come on our life-boats. Day after day in the sum- mer life-boats put out to the rescue of people in yachts and small boats, and anyone who visits the seaside today, or goes no further than the National Boat Show at Earls Court, must know that yachting has long since ceased to be a rich man's pastime. It is today the hobby of people in every walk of life.

If business nouses and other large enterprises supported us in the same way as so many private individuals do, I think our financial anxieties would be nothing like so serious as they are, and as they may be in future.

Work with Helicopters " My last and most pleasant duty before formally moving the adoption of the report and accounts is that of welcoming our guests, and I know I am speaking on behalf of everyone in this hall today in extending a most hearty welcome to Your Royal High- ness and expressing our deep gratitude to you for honouring us once again on this occasion. I am also very happy to welcome as our principal speaker the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Carrington. I feel it is a personal tribute on his part to the life-boat service that he has found time in his busy life in order to be with us today.

The Life-boat Institution has always had the happiest relations with the Royal Navy, and with the development of the helicopter our association grows closer and closer. The way in which life-boat stations and the stations of the Royal Naval Air Service work together is an outstandingly successful example of co-operation in a great cause.

" We have many other distinguished guests whom I would like to welcome.

They include His Excellency the Royal Netherlands Ambassador and Baroness Bentinck ; the mayors of a great many boroughs, for whose support of the life-boat service during their terms of office we are extremely grateful ; and among the Members of Parliament, whose constituents are later to receive medals, and their wives are Captain J. MacLeod ; Mr. F. M. Bennett and Mrs. Bennett ; Mr. M. A. C. Noble ; Mr. J. H. Cordle and Mrs. Cordle ; and Mr. C. Hughes. These are only a few of the many distinguished guests whom we are very glad to have with us." Presidential Address The report and accounts for 1959 were adopted, and the president, vice- presidents, treasurer and other mem- bers of the Committee of Management and the auditors were elected. H.R.H.

the Duchess of Kent, giving her presidential address, then said : " Thank you so much for the way in which you have welcomed me. I always feel that it should really fall to me, as President of the Institution, to welcome all of you, its faithful support- ers who come here, many of you year after year, and in doing so recognise the work of a great and unique organisa- tion, entirely voluntary in all its branches and one of the finest any- where in the world. Perhaps, there- fore, I may begin these few words by expressing the very real gratitude of the life-boat service, with which I am proud to have been associated for so long, for the loyal and generous help which it continues to receive from all of you in this hall and indeed from so many other devoted friends in every corner of these islands.

Afternoon of Rare Importance " This afternoon is one of rare im- portance in the history of the service, and I am very happy indeed that it is my privilege, once again, to take part in honouring the men of the life-boats whose courage has brought them to London to receive medals. But this year's ceremony is of special significance because, for the first time for ten years, the Institution's gold medal for gallantry has been awarded ; Coxswain Richard Evans, of the Moelfre life-boat station, will indeed be one of only two men upon whom this exceptional dis- tinction has been conferred since the end of the war. Those of you who are familiar with the accounts of the quite remarkable rescue effected by Mr.

Evans and his crew will, I know, join me in congratulating them on this epic exploit, and will agree that the awards made to every member of the Moelfre crew are in the highest degree deserved.

I am delighted that in a few weeks' time I am to have the chance to visit this station.

" Here, too, are representatives of other crews, no less intrepid and no less determined in their devotion to the high standards which the life-boat service has always demanded. To them, as well, I give our very sincere congratulations. Of the six stations concerned, the others will, I know, for- give me if I mention only two ; but I have rather personal reasons for doing so. The Fraserburgh life-boat bears my name, and I have thus a special affection for a station which I have myself visited, and which suffered so grievously seven years ago. The life- boat at Torbay was named after my daughter, and by my daughter, not quite two years ago, and has already proved its worth by a truly magnificent rescue in one of the worst of last autumn's storms.

Wave of Admiration " In speaking of Fraserburgh, my thoughts at once turn to Broughty Ferry, and to the tragic disaster which befell the life-boat and its crew there during one of those terrible and excep- tionally severe storms which occurred at the end of last year. No words that I can express will ever convey the sympathy which every one of us feels towards the widows of those brave men who gave their lives on that dreadful night. There was not a moment's doubt of the country's under- standing and depth of feeling for those who were bereaved ; indeed, the tre- mendous wave of admiration and respect for the life-boat service which swept the country at the time, and the wonderfully generous response to the plight of those bereaved, was a tribute to the affection in which the Institution is held. Even more remarkable were the almost immediate applications, numbering as many as forty, for mem- bership of the new crew. It would be difficult to find better evidence of the respect with which the Institution is regarded everywhere.

" As in previous years, I would like to conclude by recording my thanks to the crews all around our coasts. No praise is too high for these men of the sea who, without thought for them- selves, man the life-boats in ail weathers, and no thanks can ever be sufficient. To them all, on your behalf, and on behalf of their many generous supporters, I send my best wishes for the coming year." The Duchess of Kent then presented : To COXSWAIN THOMAS DAWSON of North Sunderland the bronze medal for the rescue of a man clinging to the ledge of a steep cliff face on the 12th of July, 1959 ; To COXSWAIN RICHARD EVANS of Moelfre the gold medal for the rescue of the crew of eight of the motor vessel Hindlea on the 27th of October, 1959 ; to MOTOR MECHANIC EVANS OWENS the silver medal, to MR.

DONALD FRANCIS the bronze medal, to MR.

HUGH JONES the bronze medal and to MR. HUGH OWEN a second service clasp to his bronze medal for the same service ; To MR. ALEX DUTHIE and to MOTOR MECHANIC FREDERICK KIRKNESS of Fraser- burgh the bronze medal each for the rescue of the crew of two of the fishing vessel Ocean Swell on the 27th of October, 1959 ; To COXSWAIN JAMES GILLIES of Islay the bronze medal for the rescue of the crew of four of the fishing vessel May on the 27th of October, 1959 ; To COXSWAIN ALBERT WATSON of Cromarty the silver medal for the rescue of the crew of eight of the motor vessel Servus on the 7th of December, 1959 ; to MOTOR MECHANIC JOHN WATSON the bronze medal for the same service ; To COXSWAIN HENRY THOMAS of Torbay the silver medal for the rescue of one man from a lighter on the 7th of December, 1959 ; to MOTOR MECHANIC RICHARD HARRIS the third service clasp to his bronze medal for the same service ; To MR. KENNETH DERHAM of Christchurch the silver medal for the rescue of two people from a fishing boat in his own 11-feet dinghy on the 30th of March. 1959.

First Lord of the Admiralty Lord Carrington, First Lord of the Admiralty, then moved the following resolution : " That this meeting, fully recognising the important services of the Royal National Life-boat Institution in its national work of life-saving, desires to record its hearty appreciation of the gallantry of the coxswains and crews of the Institution's life-boats, and its deep obligation to the local committees, honorary secretaries, and honorary treasurers of all station branches, and to the honorary officers and the thousands of members of the financial branches and of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild in the work of raising funds to maintain the service." Government's Appreciation In doing so, he said : " May I first of all say how very honoured I am that you should have invited me to move this resolution ?— and I do not say this just as a formality.

I have the greatest admiration for the work done by the Royal National Life-boat Institution, and I am happy to be here this afternoon to convey to you something of the appreciation of the Government of the Institution's work ; and of course their work is particularly close to the hearts of the Board of the Admiralty and of the Royal Navy. It is something of which we, as a nation, can be proud.

" The work of the Institution seems to me to fall into two distinct parts.

There is what one might call the pro- fessional work of the Institution, that is to say, the life-boats, those who man them and the jobs they do, and I hope perhaps to say a word or two about that later on. Secondly, there is the head- quarters' side, consisting of many of you who are here this afternoon who organise the work and are responsible for its smooth and efficient running.

For ninety-one years now the Institu- tion has been run entirely from voluntary contributions. I suppose that at the end of the 1860's the State was concerned in very little outside the immediate problems of government.

This is demonstrably not so today.

Most voluntary organisations have long since become the responsibility of local or central government. Not so the Royal National Life-boat Institution.

Although you have just heard from your Chairman a grave statement about the current financial position, for just under a hundred years you have managed with skill and enterprise to collect the necessary money to finance your work.

" One sometimes hears it said that we are all too much concerned today with self-interest and too little con- cerned with self-help, but it seems to me that the Life-boat Institution is a very good witness of how, if there is a good cause and it is recognised, people will contribute to it and will see that its work continues. My only query—and I put this forward very humbly—my only query is this : if you stopped ten average people in the street and asked them this question, ' How is the Life- boat Institution paid for ?', I would guess that nine out often of them would say it was run by the Government. I do not suggest that any blame attaches to anybody for this, if it is true, but I do think all of us here—and we can all of us tell our friends—must do everything in our power to tell people about the increasing need for money and volun- tary help for this Institution at a time of rising costs.

Selfless Work " Here I would like to pay, if I might, a tribute to those of you who already work so selflessly to help. There are very few people left nowadays with much leisure, and I have a great respect for those who give up so much time to collecting money and distributing flags.

They do their work, if I may say so, because I have often been a very willing victim, with courtesy and tact, some- times in weather conditions which are very far from agreeable. Though their task is not so dramatic as that of the life-boats themselves, they must realise that the life-boat service could not possibly exist without their help and their hard work.

" I would too, if I may, thank your Chairman, Lord Howe, for asking me to be here this afternoon. He is a doughty champion of the Institution and a worthy spokesman for the Royal Navy in the House of Lords. No organisa- tion can work efficiently without a proper headquarters, just as no busi- ness can succeed without proper management. You should be grateful that you have that in full and, I believe, at a commendably small administrative cost. And here perhaps I should pay my tribute to your Secretary, Colonel Burnett Brown, who is so much re- sponsible for this. I was interested to see that he has as his personal assistant Colonel Earle. Colonel Earle was the adjutant of my battalion when I joined the Army a long time ago. I only hope my transfer to the Navy will have given me some immunity from his continuing discipline. But above all you should congratulate yourselves that there is someone in the organisation a little removed from the day-to-day activity, who by personal example can inspire interest in this cause. We are fortunate, Your Royal Highness, that you go to so much trouble on behalf of the Royal National Life-boat Institution.

More Important than Ever " The second part of your work, and the object of it all, is the task of the life-boats and the crews who man them, and we have already heard this after- noon something of the job that has been done. The number of calls on the life-boats and the number of people rescued have quite clearly shown that this job is greater and more important than ever before. We also have heard of and seen this afternoon some of the men whose bravery we honour. Cox- swain Evans was awarded the gold medal, and I would pay, if I might, my tribute to him and his crew and to all those who receive their medals this afternoon. We have all of us read other examples of what has been done in 1959 and in recent years, and we must all feel as proud as I do and as humble in the face of their achievements.

" The Life-boat Institution is the sum of the men who man the life-boats, and the imagination of all of us must be struck by the ready response that they give to any call for help. How hazardous this work must have been in the late years of the last century in the early days of this Institution ! There were no internal combustion engines, no modern first-aid, no electricity, no radio ; the life-boat men put to sea sometimes with only sail or oars.

Things have changed, but for all the technical advances of this mechanised age, the power and the danger of the sea are still very much present, as we were so sadly shown by the disaster which overtook the Broughty Ferry crew, whose memory all of us honour.

" There is naturally a great fellow feeling between the Royal Navy and the Life-boat Institution. In some con- nections we work closely together, the most modern and dramatic being the co-operation between life-boats and the helicopters of the Royal Navy.

Joint exercises are carried out every so often by exchanging people between the boats and helicopters and by testing communication, and liaison is main- tained with the local life-boat crews who visit the naval establishments near them. The helicopters available for this work are spread around the coasts of Britain, and of course they do a great deal of rescue work on their own. But I have been told of two occasions last year on which helicopters and life- boats co-operated in attempted rescue operations. There was the ill-fated fishery protection cruiser Freya, for which three helicopters of the Royal Navy and several life-boats searched extensively together, though unfortu- nately without success. In the same month a Sea Hawk from Lossiemouth crashed at sea and both the life-boat and helicopter assisted in recovering the wreckage. This is a form of co- operation which we in the Royal Navy value very much, and we hope that you feel that we are playing a useful part in helping you in your difficult job.

Yacht Clubs Doubled " We are, it is said, a seafaring people.

Most of us at one time or another go to sea, though I suppose it would be true to say that unless it is our livelihood or our recreation, we are more likely to go to sea in a large steamer equipped with all the most modern devices for pre- serving the external stability of the ship and the internal stability of its passen- gers, and see the sea only from a long way above the surface. Those of us who find our recreation in sailing come very much closer to facts than that. It is remarkable and encouraging that more and more people have been turning to the sea, as any of us who look round the coasts of Britain on a summer afternoon can see for ourselves. I believe that the number of yacht clubs has doubled in the last ten years, though I am reliably informed that there are still only twelve yachts to every mile of coast line com- pared with fifty vehicles to every mile of road. There are not so many accidents at sea, but it is a fact that yachts, dinghies and sailing boats made the greatest number of calls last year on our life-boats.

Words of Conrad " However, there are many people whose livelihoods depend upon the sea: the seamen in the trawlers which go to Iceland and Bear Island, around the North Cape—an uncomfortable and dangerous living. There are the men of the Royal Navy in small ships who go to sea in all weathers. Only last week I was in Gibraltar and I saw the Home Fleet leave from there to face a most disagreeable gale just off Cape St.

Vincent. There are the crews of our coastal ships and of the other ships of j the Merchant Navy. They may some- times say, though I imagine in rather less poetic words, what Conrad once wrote : ' I looked upon the true sea, the sea that plays with men till their hearts are broken and wears stout ships to death. Nothing can touch the brooding bitterness of its soul.' " However irksome or difficult the tasks in front of the Institution, it must surely be some reward to know that your activities and the bravery and the unselflessness of the crews of the life- boats are doing so much to increase the safety of all those who sail their ships round the coast of Britain.

" In moving this resolution, I do so with the thanks of every man and woman in this country." The Duchess of Kent then presented certificates to two newly appointed honorary life-governors of the In- stitution : DR. JOSEPH SOAR, honorary secretary of the St. David's life-boat station ; MRS. A. L. WARREN PEARL of the Central London ladies life-boat guild and the Chelsea branch.

The Duchess of Kent presented a bar to the gold badge to : MRS. E. POPPE, Isle of Sheppey.

She then presented gold badges to : Miss M. McKAY, Burnley ; PROVOST A. P. MACGRORY, Campbel- town ; MRS. M. LUCKIN, Dunmow (representing the late MR. G. S. LUCKIN) ; Miss M. N. MAC!NNES, Fort William ; MRS. C. K. Mom, Moffat ; MR. B. V. HOWELL, Pwllheli.

Lord Saltoun, a vice-president of the Institution, moved a vote of thanks to the Duchess of Kent, saying : " I have to propose a vote of thanks to Your Royal Highness for coming along in person to present the awards to these gallant members of your crews who have earned these distinctions in this very busy year. I think we are all glad that Coxswain Evans has received the gold medal, a very well deserved award for a splendid service in a half- manned boat and a real feather in the cap of gallant little Wales. I think all of us are very glad to see the silver medal go to Albert Watson of Cromarty. This crew, based on Cromarty, has a very fine record and is always ready for service, and it is very difficult to maintain such an efficient and eager crew in a place where there is virtually no population at all. We have all been hoping that one day he would get a medal for service and now he has it.

Nobility of Wives "As we know, the year did not pass without a disaster, which we all mourn, that of the Broughty Ferry life-boat, and I would like to say to Your Royal Highness that Your Royal Highness's telegram of sympathy arrived in Dundee just after what I might call the immedi- ate first-aid to the families had been carried out. It was immediately com- municated to them all, and I really assure Your Royal Highness that the knowledge of your personal sympathy in their trouble was a real alleviation to the families.

" I should like to add what I think you already know : my experience in the last five years has shown me that the gallantry of our life-boat men is only equalled by the nobility of their wives.

"The storms of last autumn de- veloped in the North Sea with a ferocity which I do not remember being equalled in seventy years of memory, and I personally know of three other boats which only escaped disaster by a hair's breadth. The danger in your service is that your crews attempt too much.

They are always trying their best, and I think it is only right to say that the disaster, as serious as it has been, might have been a very great deal worse, and we must be thankful for that. I think Your Royal Highness presides over the only charity of its kind where such risks, confidently accepted, form part of our daily task, and every member of that service is quite conscious that no trouble seems to be too great for Your Royal Highness to take in order to be of help and en- couragement to them. Believe me, your crews are very conscious of your sympathy for them, in which they find an encouragement and a re- ward." Seconding Vote Seconding the vote of thanks, Mr.

N. Warington Smyth, a member of the Committee of Management, said : " A few years ago I was sailing up channel bound from Falmouth to the east coast in one of these so-called yachts, to which we have had a good deal of reference today and which cause so much trouble to the Institution.

When we got somewhere in the neigh- bourhood of Dungeness, the weather became astonishingly inclement, and we gradually had to reduce sail until we had no sail whatever. We then put out two or three warps over the stern.

Being improperly fitted, we had no sea anchor, and we eventually managed to drift round into the downs past Dover and round the corner of Deal. Now when we got near—it was pitch dark, of course ; these things always happen about two in the morning—we managed to drop anchor close in under Deal beach, and we had no sooner put out our side-lights and got the riding light alight when we were signalled from the shore with a very fine signalling lamp.

This turned out to be the local coast- guard, who spotted us the second we got there. He said : ' What ship ? Are you in trouble ?' We gave him the name of the ship and said we were not in very serious trouble and thought we were fairly safe.

" Now when dawn broke and we could see where we were going to, we made for Ramsgate, and when we got in at Ramsgate, we were received with great courtesy by the harbour master. As soon as he heard the name of the boat, he said, ' You're the rotten fellows who kept the life-boat up all night' ! So I said I was very sorry about that, and why had we kept the life-boat up all night ? ' Well, the Deal coastguard rang up here to say there was a boat which obviously would be in trouble very shortly, and so these poor life-boat men were kept awake all night.' Log Book of Bravery " It struck me, thinking over that, that it is one thing to go out immediately on a call, but it is quite another to sit on tenterhooks all night and every time it blows a gale you know you are liable to be dug out of bed and have to go to sea.

" You may think that is a long way off from seconding Lord Saltoun's reso- lution. Well, I do not think it is all that far off, because I think votes of thanks are the best we can do at this meeting, but I am quite sure Her Royal Highness' real thanks for the work she gives to us is the knowledge that she is helping our crews who are the men who write up the log book of bravery and selfless determination day by day, and indeed night by night." Leading Supporters Supporting the Duchess of Kent on the platform were the Royal Nether- lands Ambassador and Baroness Bentinck ; the Mayor and Mayoress of Westminster ; the Vice-Chairman of the London County Council ; the members of Parliament referred to in the Chairman's address ; the mayors and mayoresses of forty-four boroughs ; the Provost of Fraserburgh ; the chair- man of one urban district council and a member of one rural district council ; representatives of the Ministry of Trans- port and of the United States Coast Guard ; the donors of life-boats or their representatives, including the Civil Service Life-Boat Fund, the Ancient Order of Foresters Friendly Society, the Girl Guides Association and the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company ; representatives of charitable trusts which actively support the life-boat service ; honorary life-governors and vice-presidents of the Institution ; mem- bers of the Committee of Manage- ment ; and the chairman and deputy- chairman of the Central London Women's Committee of the Institution.

In the evening those who had re- ceived awards for gallantry and their families went to see " Follow that Girl " at the Vaudeville Theatre, where they were entertained after the show by the company..