It is with deep regret that we have to announce the death on 23rd November, 1966, at the age of 72, of Colonel Alexander Denis Burnett Brown, O.B.E., M.C., T.D., who was Secretary of the Institution from 1947 to 1960.

He was educated at Haileybury and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and served in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in the first world war in France and Belgium. He was twice wounded, mentioned hi dispatches and was awarded the Military Cross.

After the first world war he served in the Treasury from 1920 to 1931, when he joined the Institution as Deputy Secretary.

In the second world war he returned to active service. He became Secretary of the Institution in 1947, was appointed O.B.E. in 1953, and retired in 1960.

In 1926 he married Katharine Mary, daughter of the Rev. Prebendary W. G.

Clark-Maxwell. They had one son and one daughter.

The Secretary of the Institution, Mr. Stirling Whorlow writes: To have served under Colonel Burnett Brown, as I did for many years, was a privilege and an education. He had a particularly difficult task as Secretary, for he was appointed to the post at a time when the Institution was embarking on a very large programme of reconstruction following the war years, during which the building of life-boats had virtually come to a halt. This expansion took place during a time first of austerity and then of major changes in the country's social structure.

Money had to be obtained from new sources and by many new methods. The successes which the Institution achieved during his period of office are the abiding tribute to his outstanding administrative skill and the wise advice he gave to the Committee of Management.

All who knew him were deeply grieved by his death, and our sympathies go out to his widow and family. Those who were fortunate enough to visit them at their wonderful home at Lacock have the happiest memories of the manner in which they were always received there..