THE portrait on the cover is of Coxswain Hubert Petit, of St. Peter Port, Guernsey, who is only the third man to win the Institution's highest award for gallantry, its gold medal, since the war. An account of the service for which he won his medal appears on page 450.

Hubert Petit was appointed coxswain of the St. Peter Port life-boat in 1948.

Since then the life-boat has been launched on service 117 times and has rescued 110 lives..