Mr Alastair Barrow, chairman of the Reading RNLI young enthusiasts, writes that they are all about 15 years old and for the last two years have been trying to raise the £1,000 needed to buy a 15-foot ILB. In this connection a sponsored walk 'through all the lifeboat stations in the Southern District except one' is planned to start on August 6 from Reading, returning on August 14. In order to raise the balance they need—by early February they had raised £250 in other ways—they must be sponsored by 5,000 people each giving 15p.

Miss V. Knight, of Mary Vale Road.

Bournville, Birmingham, writes that a little friend Tracey, aged 11, helped them with house-to-house collections leading up to their 1973 lifeboat flag day. Tracey, who is the youngest member of the Kings Heath and Moseley ladies' lifeboat guild, suddenly said to Miss Knight; 'Oh dear, my hands are frozen. But I don't care if I get pneumonia in both of them. I'm going to carry on.' The first Wessex lifeboat ball was held last year at Sandfield House, Potterne, Devizes, by permission of Mr and Mrs W. Woodward. A special committee consisting of members from many branches and guilds throughout the Southern District, and chaired by Viscount Long of Wraxall, organised the ball, which raised nearly £800 for the lifeboat service. Dancing was to the music of Acker Bilk and the band of the Royal Marines.The Bourne End (Bucks) and district branch of the RNLI is making good use of its village community centre. One event they organised was a 'Petticoat Lane Market'. A dozen stalls were set up and stocked with goods 'cajoled from the committee and their friends'.

Tinned food, groceries, cakes, garden produce, together with bric-a-brac, ornamental jewellery, toys, books and stands of good second-hand clothing, all priced and well displayed, attracted some 400 customers and brought a profit of £200 in an hour and a half.

The following note was recently received from two pupils, Martin and Andrew, at Hambridge County Primary School, Langport, Somerset, who had been sent a mechanical lifeboat collecting box: 'Our Christmas play this year was about the RNLI. Andrew (9J) and I were in the play. I was Andrew's Dad.

That night a ship went on the sand bank and the lifeboat went out. Then the rescuers returned and the shipwrecked victims came to our home. I was really supposed to be the coastguard but I had to take someone's place. Thank you for the collecting box. We had to take it apart a few times because the rudder part came out of its groove.' The note was accompanied by a cheque for £5.

Last year members of the Helston and Porthleven branch of the RNLI had a lifeboat evening organised by Prah View Golf Club members and held at their club-house. The main event was the opening of theircollecting box, which they use as a 'swear box'. The box contained £34.8. Could this be a record for this type of box? A raffle held during the evening raised £28.55, making a total of £62.63.The E. Mathews Engineering Sick Club, of Acton, London, has sent the RNLI a cheque for £203.16. MrE. W. R.

Mathews, in a covering letter, stated: The members selected, unanimously, your Institution to receive this donation in recognition of the sacrifices and hardships suffered by the crews and dependants of your voluntary service'.

The Ruislip Brownie Pack, which has an interest in the RNLI, last year collected £57 for the lifeboat service.In 1969 the Retired Persons' Group in Mexborough, Yorkshire, decided to support the RNLI. In their last event they raised £184, making a total to date of £470. They are now working towards their fifth annual effort planned for October 1973.

Mrs T. R. Forrester-Addie, of Barmouth, who is honorary secretary of the local ladies' lifeboat guild and museum curator, writes: 'The Barmouth ladies' lifeboat guild has found a true friend in a retired Dutch sea pilot, Mr A. D. van der Maas, of Vlissingen, Netherlands. On a visit to Barmouth in 1971 with his English-born wife, he was told of our RNLI maritime museum by his hostess, and asked if he could meet the curator. My husband and I, as joint secretaries here, and being responsible for the formation of the museum, entertained him and his wife for the evening, and during conversation he produced a handful of superbly-made nylon cord key rings with "turk's head" ends, saying that he had made over £200 continued on page 28Going, going, gone This interesting picture sent in by Mr A. S.C.

Walker, of Albert Walker & Son, of Redcar, Yorkshire, shows the late Mr Stanley Walker selling the old Redcar lifeboat Fifi and Charles by public auction on Redcar beach on June 27, 1931, the purchaser being Captain J. T. Shaw, of Redcar. She was built by the Thames Ironworks Co. in 1907 and was stationed at Redcar from 1907 to 1931, during which time she was launched 17 times for 41 lives.

continued from page 26 for the Seamen's Mission in the Netherlands by making and selling these for 25p each. Needless to say we accepted with thanks, and they were all sold within a week. Since then he has sent us a regular supply, and we have made over £50 with them during the past two seasons. In January, a large box arrived containing at least a hundred more key rings (two designs now) together with beautifully made ladies' belts, dog leads, and a collection of every type of knot to make a display in the museum. Truly such kindness is indeed magnificent, and his generosity is such that he refuses to accept any payment whatsoever.' Mr A. Goodman, of Cotehele Avenue, Price Rock, Plymouth, recently won £1,000 as a result of a competition organised by a spastics society. He has now given the RNLI £500 of that sum.

The reason? Well, in World War I his father was rescued from the sea.

A Mrs G. D. M. Draper receiidy wrote to the RNLI as follows: 'I should like you to have my "extra" £10. My late husband served over 20 years in the Royal Navy, and we spent a large proportion of our lives in sea port towns. I know only too well what today's weather means at sea. May God bless your work.' Mr H. A. Parks, the headmaster of Crawley Down C.E. Primary School, Crawley Down, Sussex, in sending a cheque for £8.11 to the RNLI, the proceeds of their carol service, writes: You have a particularly foul day to thank! We were discussing this little problem in the staff room with rain tipping down on roof and windows, and a puddle 6 inches deep where a storm water drain could not cope, when a wag said: "Send it to the lifeboat". Everyone laughed and someone added: "When you stop and think, it's not really anything to laugh about". So there you are—a day of gales and rain, a staff room wisecrack, and 160 kiddies singing their heads off seem to equal £8.11.' The Reigate and Redhill branch of the RNLI, which is one of the most successful in the south east, has raised £3,000 in a 12-month period.The Sailers' Company, Portland Place, London, when told that RNLI records showed that they had been helping the lifeboat service since 1905, said: 'As a matter of interest we have looked up our records too. We find that we started subscribing in 1861 and, although there seem to have been some gaps, we have been fairly regular in our support since then. Long may it continue,' At a recent coffee morning held in Wallasey, Cheshire, two sisters attended and as they were leaving, one said to the other: 'It's a very good cause; shall we go back and give them a donation ? We can do without a holiday this year.' They returned and wrote two cheques for £50 each for the RNLI.

In May Captain A. D. H. Jay, DSO, DSC, RN, chairman of the Bottingham and district branch, attended a ceremony at Nottingham University at which he received on behalf of the RNLI the Institution's share—£250— of the total of £20,200 raised by Nottingham students during their carnival week last year.

For ten years Mrs A. H. Larking, of Bedford, has been making attractive leather purses which are sold in aid of the RNLI. Such is the popularity of the purses that the revenue from this source is now well over £600.

Captain A. Sowman, hon. secretary, received in March on behalf of the Clovelly branch of the RNLI a cheque for £500 from Group Capt I. M. Pedder, commanding RAF Chivenor. The money was raised as a result of what Capt Sowman told Group Capt Pedder was 'a brilliant inspiration.' Funds came from the sale of Air Day postal covers sent with a Lundy stamp and post-marked with the British Forces Post Office post mark at Chivenor. The 11,000 issues commemorated the Chivenor rescue unit's 5,000 emergency calls, many of them a combined operation. Clovelly lifeboat took the covers to Lundy and they were flown back to Chivenor by Fit-Lieut Ralph Probert, commander of the unit.

Copies were sold at 30p or 50p with Fit-Lieut Probert's signature or that of Mr Jim Hunter, Clovelly lifeboat coxswain.Mr N. H. Avis, of Durrington, near Hastings, who is a member of the Lifeboat Enthusiasts' Society, a year or two ago made a model of the 44-foot steel lifeboat Faithful Forester which is stationed at Dover. It has won high praise from modellers and has raised money for the lifeboat service. The pictures show (left) the full-size version of the Dover lifeboat in her pen with (right) Mr Avis' model.

by courtesy of Les Fuller.