MR. W. H. RICHARDS, previously second coxswain at the former Lyn- mouth life-boat station, died in a London hospital on the ist December, 1963, at the age of 82.

He was the last survivor of the crew which, in January 1899, hauled the life-boat Louisa over Countisbury Hill - with its gradient of one in four and a half - and launched from Porlock to help a ship in distress. The crew, 28 helpers and a team of horses, took loj hours to reach Porlock. Parts of the road had to be widened with pick-axes and shovels and gate posts and a cottage wall had to be pulled down to make way for the life-boat..