raised £630 to pay for the radio in the ILB. Clacton Round Table presented £100. St Osyth Training College gave the proceeds of its annual rag week, £300. Clacton Operatic Society presented £150. Tollesbury Sailing Club £214; Clacton Swimming Club £113; York Road Bowls Club £55; Clacton Hotels and Guest Houses raised £50 and Clacton Golf Club £55. But it was not only local organisations that helped so generously. Wyboston Sailing Club, based at Hatfield, generously gave £1,200; Newport Pagnall Grammar School raised £330 and RNLI branches at Stevenage, Harlow, Wembley and Cuffley also sent donations.

First day covers were sold over the year and the RNLI philatelic agents reported a sell out, resulting in nearly £400 to the RNLI. A Century of Valour, the history of Clacton's lifeboats, sold over 3,000 copies and the souvenir stand run by George Ellis in the boathouse also had a record year.

The result of this 'year of the lifeboat' at Clacton? It was a lot of hard work for the ladies' guild, committee, the crew themselves and helpers and the never-tiring honorary secretary, Ken Broad. It was also fun and in the final count out raised over £10,000.

How proud the Clacton folk are of their lifeboats!.