'WELCOME TO THE BOAT SHOW! we are particularly pleased that in this our 21st anniversary year we are featuring the Royal National Life-boat Institution which is, in turn, celebrating its own 150th year.' Thus, on New Year's Day, 1975, Peter Nicholson, chairman of National Boat Shows, threw wide the doors to visitors and exhibitors alike.

Sir Max Aitken, chairman of Beaverbrook Newspapers, took up the theme: 'For 21 years a most exciting time always in January. 21 years of cooperation, friendship, activity and togetherness.

..' Then Coxswain Michael Berry of St Helier, Jersey, a silver medallist and 1973 winner of the Maud Smith award for the bravest act of lifesaving, stepped forward to open the International Boat Show 1975, representing, as he said, all coxswains and all lifeboat crews.

St Helier's new lifeboat, a 44' Waveney named Thomas James King in honour of a former Jersey coxswain and gold medallist, was on show outside the Warwick Road entrance to Earls Court. Once on station she will be in Coxswain Berry's care, and, in his opening speech he spoke of the passage he and the Jersey crew had made from Cowes to St Helier in Elizabeth Rippon, their present boat, just after her keel had been repaired following the service to Bacchus in September 1973. Duringthe passage a member of the crew had handed Coxswain Berry a small bottle filled with water labelled: 'Amount of water to be kept under the keel'.

Coxswain Berry felt that it might have been better if the original contents had been left in the bottle, with the instructions: 'Only to be taken when there is insufficient water under the keel'.

Well, it was, after all, a very small brandy bottle.

Right from the start there was an air of friendliness, warmth and gaiety (despite the sad innovation of police spot checks on incoming baggage). Even the leading article of the show catalogue ended, 'Have fun!'. And right from the start the RNLI was at the heart of the sailing community gathered in London, to such an extent that one of the first headlines in the evening papers was 'Opening of the Lifeboat Show'.For the RNLI it was surely the happiest of Boat Shows. It was the culmination of the 150th anniversary, a year in which, through prodigious hard work, lifeboat people had achieved financial success in the face of world inflation and, on the way, had found great enjoyment and an increased spirit of community.

Now, at Earls Court, through the kind sponsorship of the Midland Bank, a lifeboat station was established for 11 days in the central feature fishing village. In among cottages and harbour buildings clustered round the pool was a Walmer-type boathouse and displayed on its 'slipway' was Robert and Ellen Robson, last of the RNLl's pulling lifeboats. She ended her service at Whitby in 1957 and since then has formed the principal exhibit of Whitby's lifeboat museum.

There were inshore lifeboats at Earls Court, too. An Atlantic 21 was moored by the jetty (as well as another on show on William Osborne's stand) and also a D class ILB which regularly four times a day throughout the show, manned by lifeboat crews, took part in a search and rescue display with an RAF helicopter 'hovering' over the pool.

No fishing village is complete without its indigenous, noisy, ubiquitous seagulls.

We have grown well used to the seagull's cry at Earls Court; but this year they could be seen as well as heard, with lifelike models gliding effortlessly above the water, congregating round nets and lobster pots and, standing in lines, viewing the scene sardonically from the safety of cottage roofs.

Looking after the Whitby lifeboat for the first few days of the show was Eric Thomson, a former honorary secretary at Whitby and the man chiefly responsible for the museum in which the boat is housed in her retirement. During the early part of his 21 years in office, Robert and Ellen Robson was still operational. At that time, Commander Leslie Hill (also on duty on the RNLI stand) had been Divisional Inspector North East, and in those days both had been out together on exercise in the old pulling boat. There was yet another link with the past: one of the first visitors who came to see the Whitby lifeboat at Earls Court was H. F. Reed of East Cowes, who, as an apprentice at S. E.

Saunders in 1918, had helped to build her.

Throughout the show friends and well-wishers flowed in and out of the RNLI boathouse, where there was to be found a souvenir stand manned by members of branches and guilds in and around London doing brisk trade, and also representatives of Shoreline (see page 294). The RNLI PJiilatelic Agents from Canterbury had a stall there, too, selling lifeboat stamp special covers.

In overall charge of the stand was Jack Sims, on his last assignment before retirement. Another familiar figure present throughout the show was George Mobbs, taking good care of theboats. There were representatives of lifeboat crews too, and members of the RNLI staff, and, of course, Sergeant Frank Elverson of the Royal Chelsea Hospital, one of the RNLI's staunchest friends. Sitting at the entrance to the 'slipway', or mingling with the spectators watching the rescue displays, he collected a record £800 singlehanded. At a special ceremony on the waterfront on the last Saturday, Frank was presented with a commemorative plaque by the RNLI and with a framed picture by a member of the RAF helicopter team.

Each year the RNLI runs a competition during the show. This year it was a new 'spot the maroon' puzzle devised by Commander E. F. 'Ted' Pritchard, Appeals Secretary. First prize—a glass fibre Spray dinghy given by Tidal Marine Marketing, complete with a 3.6 HP Chrysler outboard engine given by Aqua Marine and a trailer given by Bramber Engineering—was won by R. M. Stanton of Billericay. Second prize, a painting entitled 'Snow Leopard' by Samaraweera, was won by E. Manson of Lerwick, Shetland. Three people tied for third place, Mrs E. M. Hutton of Putney, Mrs S. Blow of Dagenham, and D. Ainsworth of London, and they were each presented with a copy of Oliver Warner's new history of the RNLI 'The Life-boat Service'.

In the 11 days of the show, souvenir counter, competition and collecting boxes raised between them an excellent £4,616.74.

During the course of the show a number of special presentations were made on the waterfront, both to and by the RNLI. They began on the preview Press day, when a £5,000 cheque for an Atlantic 21 was presented by Alexander Duckhams—a firm with a long history of generosity to the RNLI.

Friday, January 3, saw two presentations, both made by E. G. Denman managing director of the Marine Division of Minet Insurance. First, hepresented a cheque from Minet (£1,450 for a D class ILB) to Coxswain 'Joe' Martin of Hastings ('We will use it to every possible advantage when it comes to our turn to save life at sea,' said Coxswain Martin); then Mr Denman, on behalf of Shoreline, presented a plaque to its 20,000th member, 12-yearold Linda Catlin.

Support from the RAF station in Germany, at Wildenrath, resulted in the presentation on Monday, January 6, of a cheque for £6,083 to cover the cost of an Atlantic 21 to be stationed at Appledore. Jt was Squadron Leader Bailey who thought of the idea in October 1973; subsequently he was posted, but the job of co-ordinating the fund raising was taken on first by Group Captain Tetley, then by Squadron Leader Fox and finally by Squadron Leader Adams. All four officers were present at Earls Court and Squadron Leader Adams brought with him a most professionally produced book in which he had illustrated the methods used by RAF personnel and their families to achieve the astounding sum of over £6,000 in only 12 months.

Cheques coming in thick and fast, Bacofoil presented one to Robin Knox- Johnston for £1,400, for a D class ILB, on Tuesday, January 7th. The money was raised by a promotion in the autumn; for every Bacofoil pack end sent in by the public a donation of 5p was to be made to the RNLI. On Wednesday, January 8, King George's Fund for Sailors presented a cheque to Captain D. S. Tibbits for £1,500 to pay the cost of another D class ILB, already on station at Borth.

Then came Friday, January 10, and the harbour was suddenly transformed into an 'open-air' theatre, embracing, it seemed, the whole of Earls Court. Eric Morecambe arrived complete with treasure chest, pirate hat and a seagull on his shoulder and, enlisting the impromptu aid of Commander Ralph Swann as 'straight man' (Commander Swann: 'Do you sail ?' Eric Morecambe: 'My dear sir, I've always walked like this, ever since I was born'), soon had the crowded galleries and waterfront rocking with laughter at his happy clowning.

Of course, there was a serious part to the business. Eric Morecambe was there on behalf of the House of Seagram topresent Commander Swann, chairman of the Committee of Management, with a cheque for £10,000—'AND IT'S ALL MONEY!' Eric cried, as he handed it over.

On Saturday, January 11, it was the turn of sport. All through the Boat Show, at each demonstration period, four of Britain's most skilled anglers had taken part in a game of pool snooker: casting to burst snooker-coloured balloons on a floating simulated billiard table. For every point scored Woolworths gave £2 to the RNLI, and, as a result, on the last Saturday a cheque for £1,500 was presented to Sir Alec Rose to cover the cost of another ILB.

That was not the full score of donations.

There was, for instance, a cheque for £250 from Jabsco Pumps; one for £105 from Chris and Frank Moore of The King's Head, Walsall, (raised, it was claimed, by piracy as well as supergenerosity!) presented to Crew Member Roger Trigg of Southwold; and another for £50 from Lomer Motor Cruiser School. Nor was it the full score of support from well-known personalities.

Ernie Wise and Polly James (of 'The Liver Birds') both added greatly to the fun, and the profit, when, on twodifferent days, they came to sign copies of the RNLI third Cook Book, to which they had both contributed recipes.

Thursday, January 9, was the day on which the RNLI, represented by Lieut.

Commander P. E. C. Pickles, a member of the Committee of Management, made its own presentations to those from whom it had received outstanding help.

The thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum were presented to the Midland Bank, 'The Daily Express' and National Boat Shows Ltd. Public relations statuettes were then presented to Basil Bathe, Assistant Keeper of the Science Museum, who played a leading role last spring in the preparation of 'The Modern Lifeboat' exhibition; and to Richard Owen, Group Public Relations Officer of Midlands Bank, who was largely concerned in the staging of the village and lifeboat station at EarlsCourt. Another statuette should have been presented to Ronald Elliott, Director of Publicity, Westward Television, who had served as chairman of the publicity sub-committee which contributed so much to the success of the International Lifeboat Exhibition at Plymouth last summer; but unfortunately Mr Elliott was prevented by illness from receiving his award in person.

For 11 days the RNLI had been part of the very weft and warp of the London Boat Show. As lifeboat people had taken part in the opening cermonial and in the day by day programme round the pool, so they were to join in the closing festivities, graphically described in Shoreline's report on page 295. If 1974 was 'The Year of the Lifeboat', 1975 will surely be remembered as the year of the lifeboat Boat Show.—J. D..