COLONEL A. D. BURNETT BROWN, O.B.E., M.C., T.D., M.A.. retired from the post of Secretary of the Institution on the 30th of June, 1960, after twenty- nine years in the Institution's service.

He came to the Institution in 1931 from the Treasury to fill the post of Deputy Secretary on the appointment of Lieut.- Colonel C. R. Satterthwaite, O.B.E., as Secretary. In 1947, when Lieut.- Colonel Satterthwaite retired, Colonel Burnett Brown was appointed Secretary.

Colonel Burnett Brown is succeeded as Secretary by Lieut-Colonel Charles Earle, D.S.O., O.B.E., who has been acting as his personal assistant since 1958. Details of the career of Lieut.- Colonel Earle, who served as an officer in the Grenadier Guards, as Adjutant of the Royal Military Academy, Sand- hurst, and in the War Office, were given in the June 1958 number of the Life- boat on page 46.

Lieut-Colonel Earle writes : " Colonel Burnett Brown's career has been one of outstanding public service. As a young man he served in the first world war, when he was twice wounded, was awarded the military cross and was mentioned in despatches. When the war came to an end he went up to Oxford, and after taking his degree filled import- ant posts in the administrative branch of the Treasury. He left the Treasury to begin a long and valued career in the service of the Royal National Life-boat Institution. This service was interrupted when war broke out again, and once more he served his country with notable distinction, commanding battalions of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and the West York- shire Regiment.

Adapted to New Society " Within two years of the end of the war he was appointed Secretary of the Institution at a time when the aftermath of the war presented grave and pressing problems. A major task of reconstruction was called for, as the building of life-boats had virtually ceased during the war ; something of a social revolution was occurring, and the Life-boat Institu- tion had to adapt itself to the new society which was emerging.

" In the year of Colonel Burnett Brown's appointment as Secretary the cost of the service amounted to approximately £600,000. Thirteen years later, when he retired, as much as a million pounds had to be raised every year. That the service as a whole overcame so many difficulties and problems with such conspicuous success is in very large measure attributable to Colonel Burnett Brown's unusual administrative ability and the scrupulous care with which he served the Committee of Management throughout.

" I am sure all those associated with the Life-boat Service will wish him many years of happy retirement, and all who have been privileged to know her will think too of Mrs.

Burnett Brown, whose personal kind- ness and interest in the service have been so well known to so many.".