'THE Year of the Lifeboat', as 1974 is to be known, will be an occasion for everyone connected with the lifeboat service to feel both pride and humility.

A record of 150 years of voluntary service, as a result of which the lives of nearly 100,000 people have been saved from death at sea, offers every justification for a feeling of pride. Pride too may be felt in the individual qualities of those who have helped to mould the service.

It was a singular combination of imagination, foresight and understanding of how a new service could be administered which led Sir William Hillary to publish the pamphlet which was in effect the origin of the RNLI.

The qualities Hillary showed as pamphleteer and administrator were supported by first-hand experience of saving life at sea, in which he displayed outstanding courage and devotion to duty. In 1830 the mail steamer St.

George was wrecked in a November gale. The Douglas lifeboat put out to the rescue, and conditions were such that Hillary himself was washed overboard and six of his ribs were fractured.

Nevertheless he carried on with the work of rescue, and the whole of the St. George's crew of 22 were saved.

They Manned Open Rowing Boats Others in whom we readily take pride were the men who manned the open rowing boats for many hours in appalling conditions; the men and women who took part in the extraordinary overland journeys which were sometimes required to enable lifeboats to be successfullylaunched; the numerous volunteer workers, in particular those who over the years formed the controlling body; and the full time staff who enabled continuity to be maintained and provided those professional skills through which the lifeboat service kept abreast of new developments in design, construction and equipment. The labours of all combined to create a service which has been admired and emulated in many countries and which today provides the central secretariat for lifeboat organisations throughout the world. Humility may be felt by those of us who continue in the work and who wonder to what extent we are worthy of our predecessors.

Archbishops' Tradition On page 76 a summary appears of events planned for the celebration of the RNLI's 150th anniversary during 'The Year of the Lifeboat'. A happy link with the past is provided by the fact that the Archbishop of Canterbury has agreed to preach the sermon in St Paul's Cathedral on March 4, for it was an earlier Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Manners Sutton, who presided over the meeting at which the RNLI was founded in 1824. The fact that the lifeboat service belongs to the people as a whole and is available to all will be pleasingly demonstrated by the ecumenical nature of the service, for in addition to participation by Roman Catholic and Free Church leaders a lesson from the Old Testament is being read by a rabbi of the Jewish faith.

Those readers of THE LIFEBOAT who live in London or who have reasonable access to the capital will find an insertion in this number giving details of a midnight matinee being held at the Victoria Palace on Friday, March 8. At the time of going to press the names of all those taking part are not known, but there is little doubt that there will be an all star cast worthy of this important occasion.

On pages 76-77 photographs appear of some of the commemorative items produced to mark 'The Year of the Lifeboat'.The Modern Lifeboat The first of the major events in the RNLI programme of celebrations will be an important exhibition entitled 'The modern lifeboat' to be held in the Science Museum in Kensington, for two months beginning on February 21.

Voluntary workers of the RNLI who feel able and willing to give up some of their time to be present at this exhibition are cordially invited to send their names to the editor. Similar voluntary help w i l l be most welcome during the international lifeboat exhibition at Plymouth which will begin on July 19 and will last for four weeks.

It is already known that the BBC will be marking the RNLI's 150th anniversary by a special television programme on BBC 1 in 'Tuesday's Documentary'. This will begin at 9.25 p.m. and will last for 50 minutes. An appeal on behalf of the RNLI will be made on Sunday March 10, by Mr Michael Bentine on independent television wavelengths in England and Wales.

International Publication When the RNLI celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1924 one of the principal events was the staging of the first international lifeboat conference, which was held in London. Since then, apart from a gap caused by the war from 1939 to 1945, such conferences have been held at four-yearly intervals.

At the last conference, held in 1971, the RNLI delegation presented a paper outlining the need for an international For Classified Advertisements See page 112 publication devoted wholly to technical developments in lifeboats and their equipment, which could serve to bridge the gap of four years between the holding of conferences. The paper was enthusiastically welcomed by a number of delegates present, and an editorial board with representatives from France, the Netherlands, Sweden and the U.S.A., as well as from the RNLI, was formed.

It was hoped at first that some international trust or foundation would be found willing to finance the enterprise, but all efforts to attract the necessary funds have hitherto failed. As a result the RNLI has undertaken to produce the new international publication on its own machines, and Mr Grahame Farr, the lifeboat historian, has undertaken to act as editor. Costs will be met by contributions from the lifeboat societies interested..