ONCE again figures show that life-boats have been called out on service more often in one particular month than in the corresponding month in any year, either in peace or war, since the Royal National Life-boat Institution was founded in 1824. The significance of this fact Jies not in the mere establish- ment of a record, but in the clear light it throws on the nature of the life-boat service today. The record month this year was June, when life-boats were launched on service 98 times. The previous record figure for June of 84 launches was set up as recently as 1959.

There were not in fact exceptional weather conditions in June this year, and the establishment of yet another record simply reveals that year by year, in spite of all technical developments and aids to safety at sea, more and more calls are made on the life-boat service.

THE SECRETARY'S RETIREMENT The retirement of Colonel A. D.

Burnett Brown from the post of Secre- tary of the Institution ends a period of twenty-nine years in the Institution's active service. The essence of the life- boat service is, of course, to be found in its voluntary workers, in the crews who man the life-boats and in those who raise money to make the service possible. The controlling body too, the Committee of Management, is composed of those who give their services voluntarily. However, it would clearly be impossible to co- ordinate the work of all the voluntary workers in all parts of the country, or to provide the facts and reasoned argu- ments on which the Committee of Management can base its decisions, without an efficient secretariat. The secretariat has always been a small one in accordance with the Institution's policy of keeping its administrative costs as low as possible, but the Institu- tion has been extremely fortunate in the quality of those who have filled the post of Secretary. Among the very able men who have done so were Richard Lewis, who was a young barrister when he was appointed Secretary in 1850, at a time when the Institution's finances were in a poor state, and who remained Secretary until he died in 1883 ; Charles Dibdin, the founder of the Civil Service Life-boat Fund, who came to the Institution from the Savings Bank of the General Post Office ; and Sir George Shee, who played such an important part in the successful develop- ment of the service in the earlier years of the present century. Colonel Burnett Brown carried on this tradition with outstanding ability. A note on his work by his successor, Lieut.- Colonel Charles Earle, appears on page 481.

LIFE-BOAT TO BE NAMED " DUKE OF CORNWALL " The Queen's decision to allow the life-boat for the new station on the Lizard peninsula to be named Duke of Cornwall has given particular pleasure to those associated with the establish- ment of the new station. The new station is itself to be named the Lizard- Cadgwith, thereby incorporating in its name the traditions of two very fine life-boat stations. A new life-boat of the 52-feet Barnett type is being built at Cowes.

SCHOOL HOUSES' NAMES The esteem felt for its life-boat station by the people of Cromer has been revealed in an interesting decision taken by the Cromer Secondary Modern School. There are four houses in this school, which were previously dis- tinguished by having separate colours.

They have now each been given names, and the names chosen are those of four life-boats which have served at Cromer : H. F. Bailey, Louisa Heartwell, Henry Blogg and Harriot Dixon. The last two are, of course, the names of the Cromer life-boats in service today.

BABIES BORN IN LIFE-BOATS The report in the last number of the Life-boat that a mother had given birth to a baby in the Barra Island life-boat, and that this was believed to be the first birth to occur in a life-boat of the Institution, has elicited a letter from the French life-boat society, Societe Centrale de Sauvetage des Naufrages, recording similar instances off the French coast. Among a number of births recorded was one which took place in 1939, when a baby boy was born on board the life-boat Jean Charcot of the He Molene. The young man bears to- day as one of his names " Charcot " as a memorial of the circumstances of his birth..