ST. KATHARINE DOCK, London, was the scene in blustery weather on 4th May, 1966, of the naming of the first of the Institution's fleet of yo-foot steel life-boats - the £57,000 Charles H. Barrett (Civil Service No. 35) - by Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, who is president of the Institution.

Princess Marina, who was greeted at the quayside by the Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Councillor T. H. A. Mitchell, spoke before naming the boat of the 'wonderful example' set by the fund in raising by voluntary means the money for its construction.

The newly commissioned life-boat, 70-001, has a sister, 70-002, and these boats can carry up to 120 survivors and can stay at sea much longer than other life-boats of the Institution's fleet.

CENTENARY VELLUM At the naming ceremony, which was supported by many people, including London schoolchildren and boys of the City of London Sea Scouts, Air Vice- Marshal Sir Geoffrey R. Bromet, K.B.E., C.B., D.S.O., D.L., a deputy chairman of the Committee of Management, who took the place of Captain the Hon.

V. M. Wyndham-Quin, R.N., Chairman, at short notice, invited Princess Marina to present a commemorative vellum to the Civil Service Life-boat Fund to mark the occasion of the fund's centenary.Princess Marina, who afterwards inspected the life-boat and spoke to Lieut.- Commander H. F. Teare, R.N., and the crew of five, then presented the vellum to Sir Eric A. Seal, K.B.E., C.B., chairman of the fund and a member of the Institution's Committee of Management.

Sir Eric, in handing over the life-boat to the Institution, recalled that the Civil Service Life-boat Fund was 'a very remarkable and quite unique body'.

It started, he said, over 100 years ago in the General Post Office. It had gone on spreading and growing, quite spontaneously, throughout the much larger Civil service of today. It had started with an annual income of £300 when the average subscription was about 6d., and now had an annual income of over £25,000 with subscribers giving an average of about 2s. 6d.

Sir Eric added: 'The Civil Service Life-boat Fund decided that the best way to celebrate this centenary is to present the very latest and largest life-boat ever to the service, and here she is. I will say nothing in praise of her - let her speak for herself.' THE ACCEPTANCE Air Vice-Marshal Sir Geoffrey Bromet accepted the life-boat on behalf of the Institution, and the dedication by the Chaplain of the Fleet, the Venerable Archdeacon Christopher Prior, Q.H.C., M.A., followed. After Mr. F. B. Savage, secretary of the Civil Service Life-boat Fund, had proposed a vote of thanks, Princess Marina named the life-boat.

Miniature star attraction of the morning was 4 year old Alison Catherine Gibb, the daughter of a member of the Civil Service Life-boat Fund's executive committee, whose presentation of a bouquet to Princess Marina caught the attention of The Times photographer to the extent of not one photograph but five photographs on the back page of next day's edition!.