Two DOCTORS who were landed on Lundy Island to attend a woman who was seriously ill after a miscarriage have been commended by the Institution to the British Medical Association. They also received letters of appreciation from the Chairman of the Institution, Captain the Hon. V. M. Wyndham-Quin, R.N.

They are Dr. W. Ruddock, M.B., B.Ch., and Dr. S. G. Brook, M.B., B.Chir.

Dr. Ruddock telephoned the Appledore honorary secretary, Captain P.

Brennan, at 7 p.m. on ist January 1966, to ask for the help of the life-boat to take him and Dr. Brook, a gynaecologist from Barnstaple, to Lundy Island to attend the sick woman. He had already asked for the help of a helicopter but the R.A.F. at Chivenor were unable to help because of darkness and the state of the weather. The two doctors reached Appledore at 8.15.

A westerly gale was blowing, gusting in squalls to hurricane force. The sea was rough. It was two hours after low water.

At 8.30 the life-boat, Louisa Anne Hawker, which is one of the 4y-foot Watson type, put out. Conditions when she crossed Appledore bar were extremely bad, but they improved as the life-boat approached Lundy, although there was considerable backwash from the cliffs at the landing when she approached at 1.26.

Two men, Mr. R. N. Davey and Mr. J. G. Ogilvie, put off from the Lundy slip in a dinghy, but they were washed back on to the rocky beach and their dinghy capsized. They succeeded in clambering out of the water.

It now seemed that the only way to put the two doctors ashore was by means of the South lighthouse stores hoist. This consists of a wire cable anchored on the sea bed and secured to sheer legs on the cliff near the lighthouse. An open box was lowered down the cable by winch. Coxswain H. E. Carter anchored and veered down close enough to the cable to pass a rope round it from the starboard bow of the life-boat. Dr. Ruddock and Dr. Brook climbed into the box with their equipment and were then hauled some 250 feet up to the cliff top. As they went up the box was swinging dangerously in the wind.

MOVED TO SAFE ANCHORAGE Coxswain Carter moved to a safe anchorage and stood by ready to re-embark the doctors when they had finished their work.

The doctors came to the conclusion that the woman should be taken to hospital and it was decided to ask for a helicopter to come from Chivenor at dawn.

The R.A.F. asked for the life-boat to stand by, and the coxswain weighed anchor at 6.40 a.m. to take up a position half way between Lundy and the mainland. He reached this position at 8.30. The helicopter landed, took on board the woman and two doctors and returned to Barnstaple, arriving at 8.50.

At 10.28, when the life-boat was approaching Appledore bar, Coxswain Carter decided it would be too hazardous to try to cross. He returned to Lundy and secured to a mooring where the life-boat remained until the morning of the 3rd January. On the return trip the drogue and oil sprays were used when crossing the bar and the life-boat finally reached her station at 11.10 a.m.

Additional monetary awards were made to the crew and letters of thanks were sent to Mr. Davey and Mr. Ogilvie and to the Superintendent of Trinity House depot at Swansea..