Kipling in the Borders On Saturday March 9 The Duke and Duchess of Roxburgh kindly allowed their home, Floors Castle in the Borders, to be the magnificent setting for a Kipling evening organised by the Honourable Mrs Henry Douglas-Home and her social committee drawn from the Borders area. A limited number of guests were invited to attend the evening which was presented by actor and TV personality Gerald Harper. Mr Harper and his daughter Sarah devised the evening's entertainment, a one-man show depicting Kipling's life in India and England. Other items on the evening's programme were the recital of a poem, The Lifeboat Men, written by William Douglas-Home (see page 211), and a display of Kipling memorabilia kindly lent by Viscount Cobham. At the end of this memorable evening almost £5,000 was raised.

Sponsored pursuits Two cyclists from the DHSS in Romford and Central London, Geoff Lambert and Paul Ewart, raised £410 for the Institution in their sponsored 'corner to corner' cycle ride from John O'Groats to Land's End. The ride took nine days, after which the pair spent a week's 'convalescence' in Cornwall.

Pensioner Albert Fradley from Stafford 'beat the bounds' in a 20-mile walk around the parish of Berkswich, raising money for the RNLI. Albert, aged 71, has been supporting the Institution for three years by doing this boundary walk and this year raised £53, completing the course in just over five hours.

Each year since 1980 Stourbridge branch has held a sponsored knit in.

This year's event was held in February at the Watercourse Restaurant with 60 ladies taking part who, between them, raised the record sum of £1,061.84. This also included money from a raffle and the sale of 501bs of home made marmalade.

All the knitted squares are made into blankets and sent to Mother Theresa in Calcutta.

Engraving hobby After spending many years building lifeboats at William Osborne's boatyard at Littlehampton, John Legg is now helping the RNLI in a totally different capacity. Since taking up engraving as a hobby three years ago Mr Legg has produced several items to be auctioned in aid of the RNLI. Twickenham branch have auctioned a tankard and a decanter, both had lifeboats engraved on them and they raised £30 and £75 respectively; and following the donation of three glass topped tables by the Courts Furnishing Company, Mr Legg engraved a different lifeboat on each which raised a further £65.

Tall stories An audience of 250 enjoyed a double bill film show of the tall ships in the Mersey. The films were followed by a feast of soup, baked potatoes and sausages, all washed down with a healthy dose of laughter during an amusing talk by Mr Tol Smith on his own exploits on Lone Fox of Wirral during the Tall Ships Race. The evening was a great success raising £500 for Neston and Parkgate branch.

Running total The sands of time didn't run out for Paul Thompson who finished the Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, marathon in the very respectable time of 3 hours 37 minutes—and that after starting to run at 0430 hours! (Before the sun gets up).Paul was sponsored in aid of Calshot and district branch, the total amount raised being about £1,500.

Two lifeboat stations benefited from the Scarborough September Carnival marathon when Shoreline Club No 7 member, Eric Pickup, ran under sponsorship for the RNLI. Mr Pickup wasable to hand over £86 each to the coxswains of Scarborough and Filey lifeboats.

Local knowledge Mr T. G. Audley from St Ives, Cornwall, gives walkabout tours of Old St Ives, including of course, the lifeboathouse.

Recently Mr Audley was able to send a cheque for £12 to the St Ives branch, the result of donations given after the walk and talk. Mr Audley would be happy to give his services free of charge to any visiting lifeboat crew or Shoreline members. Mr Audley's telephone number is (0736) 797967.

Lifeboat refit Having been taken off station temporarily for a refit, the old metal collecting box from the Six Bells pub in Colchester was given a thorough survey by GT Coach Works. Their estimate for the work was received by licensee Mr Margetts as follows: To recover RNLI lifeboat from her bar area and place in dry dock.

Prepare and re-spray in original colours.

Remove from dry dock and re-berth on bar.

Labour—two light and bitters Recovery fee—bacon sandwich Typist fee—bread pudding and coke All the above prices are subject to VAT at the current rate.

The box, now resplendent in its new paint and back on station (on the bar), will continue to collect money for the RNLI, an estimated £50 to £60 every few months.Promises, promises An auction with a difference was held on April 19, organised by Saffron Waiden and District branch and held at the Butler Leisure Centre. It was an auction of promises. Only a few of the lots could actually be seen, but from their description in the catalogue, some of them had to be seen to be believed! Lot 11, half a ton of horse-manure (well rotted); Lot 13, escorted tour of the Palace of Westminster for two people by Alan Haselhurst, MP; Lot 20, tennis party for six on a rather doubtful grass court followed by a barbeque supper; Lot 54, Mrs Linda Bush will make a pair of French knickers, material to be supplied by bidder, and Lot 60, a day's shooting for an experienced gun during November. Expected bag 50 brace. The auction was a great success and raised £2,856.

Model speakers Charles Steele, ex-motor mechanic of Selsey lifeboat, and Philip Johnson give numerous talks and film shows in the south west region, always taking along their models of the Brede class lifeboat, Caroline Finch, and the 48ft 6in Oakley, Charles Henry. The two gentlemen recently gave a talk to the Young Farmers' Club of Lewdon near Okehampton, and received a substantial cheque as a result of their efforts.

Speed cheque The RNLI was in high spirits when presented with a cheque for £4,500 by the organisers of the famous soap boxgrand prix held at Blakesley, Northants.

This annual event has raised over £14,000 for the Institution in seven years. The presentation reception was hosted by Matthew Clark and Sons Ltd, who ensure that every lifeboat around the country carries a supply of Martell Cognac.

The Burnham Boppers The Burnham Boppers keep fit class Has sadly had to stop Each week we'd dance, and stretch and prance Until we used to drop.

Then teacher had a baby girl We're pleased with all our heart But she would need her evening feed When class was due to start.

We carried on for several months, We paid just as before, The kitty grew, but now we're through, The Boppers bop no more! The kitty bought a gift for Mum, And one for baby too, We thought it best to give the rest To some good cause, like you.

So now our joints grow still again, Leg muscles back to jellies, But when gales blow, at least we know Six crewmen have new wellies! Mrs J. Ballinger, on behalf of the Burnham Boppers sent this rhyme to Head Office in Poole, together with £37.50 which does indeed buy six pairs of boots.

Reliable sources Margate ladies' guild was very active during the run up to Christmas. The ladies ran a fayre, which raised £445, a draw and dance at the Norfolk Hotel raising £574.65 and a sherry morning which brought in a further £210. What is normally a non-profit-making social evening organised for the crew members was then such a success that the branch was able to send a cheque for £290 to the Institution, which was on top of £22,279 forwarded to headoffice at the end of 1984.

Widnes ladies' guild celebrated its diamond anniversary in 1984, having been fund raising for 60 years. With a celebratory spurt to their activities, the ladies were able to send to head office £2,346, a record amount for the guild.

Heywood ladies' guild in Lancashire held their annual dance in January which raised £460.30. This brings the total amount raised by their dances over the last 10 years to £4,404.

The Lea Singers raised almost £700 for their local RNLI branch at Harpenden during one of their annual charity carol concerts. Mince pies and punch and a successful raffle also featured on the evening's programme. Harpenden branch raised a further £1,500 from the sale of 65 tons of waste paper collected during the year. This way of raising money has made £5,500 for the branch since the collecting began.

When the Kingfisher Angling Club of Quorn, Leicestershire donated a caravan to Loughborough branch as the result of a sponsored fish, the branch decided to paint her in lifeboat colours.

With the help of Brian Edwards from the firm Edwards of Loughborough, the caravan now has orange 'superstructure' and a blue 'hull'. On its first public outing the van created great interest at a local fete and helped the branch to raise £211 by the end of the day.

The ladies of Ramsgate are excellent sales people. From their stall at Ramsgate Harbour the ladies, including Mrs Mary Cannon, mother of Coxswain/ Mechanic Ron Cannon, sold so many souvenirs that they were able to donate £8,500 towards the cost of Ramsgate's new Atlantic 21 lifeboat, Ramsgate Enterprise.

An RNLI shop, run by Seaview/St Helen's branch, Isle of Wight, in empty premises made over £380 in only ten hours. The shop, open for two hours in the morning over five days, sold RNLI souvenirs as well as home made goodies and bric-a-brac.

Anyone for coffee? The Broadway ladies' guild held an extremely successful coffee morning at the Lygon Arms on May 3. The morning was very much enjoyed by everyone who attended and raised the sum of £1,013.35.

The newly-formed Witton Gilbert guild, Co Durham, has already brought in nearly £250 for the RNLI. The money was made at a coffee/sherry morning, with raffles and a bring and buy sale held at the home of Mrs Eva Johnson, founder of the guild. Despite snow and ice, 90 people attended the morning, making this small guild's first fund raising event a resounding success.

In December, 1984, Penarth guild held its annual supper and raised over £700. Part of this amount came from the sale of souvenirs during the evening.

Local support Speculation was rife about how much money customers and staff of the Speculation Inn, Hundleton, Pembroke, had raised for Angle lifeboat station.

The landlord and his lady, Richard and Ann Nelson, organised a variety of events including a sponsored beard shave and a goose raffle. At a special presentation evening a cheque for £600 was handed over to Gerald Edwards, coxswain of Angle lifeboat.

Regular customers and staff of the Freelands Tavern in Bromley have undertaken to pay for the £1,500 VHP direction finding set recently fitted in Walmer lifeboat, The Hampshire Rose.

So far £750 has been handed over with money coming from sponsored events, contests and a pile of pennies which was ceremoniously demolished by former Page Three Girl of the Year, Samantha Fox.WILLIAM DOUGLAS-HOME wrote this poem for recital at the RNLI fund raising evening held at Floors Castle in the Borders, last March.

THE LIFEBOAT MEN When you lie in your bed on a winter's night And you wake to the sound of the raging storm And the windows creak and the curtains blow And you know that the only place that's warm In the whole wide world is the bed you're in And you pull the blankets up to your chin There's a ship off-shore on the storm-tossed deep And she's trying to ride out a force-ten gale But the wind's too strong and the sea's too steep And the anchor drags and the engines fail As the ice-tipped waves break over the deck — And the rocks stand by to break up the wreck.

But there's other men lying in bed ashore And in beds as warm and as cosy as yours When the warning sounds at the hour of four And they up and they dress and they run out-of-doors Down the empty street to the snow-clad quay Where they launch the lifeboat and put to sea And they round the headland and battle their way Through the mountainous waves and the blinding spray And the lifeboat shudders and heaves and groans As she turns their stomachs and rattles their bones While they look for a sign in the hell ahead — And the rocks prepare to receive their dead And they wallow and skid through the raging seas In the teeth of the gale and the driving snow As they fight for balance on flexing knees And the dread of disaster begins to grow — Though with never a thought for their own welfare When the look-out suddenly spots a flare And a cheer goes up as their hopes renew And the boat draws near to the stricken ship And with matchless courage they winch the crew As they lurch and shudder and slide and slip Then they sail for home with their salvaged mates — As the dawn comes up and the wind abatesAnd so, as you awake from your restful sleep And you walk to the window and look outside At a day which has snatched more lives from the deep For the lifeboat men you will feel great pride In the wonderful selfless work they do For the likes of me and the likes of you —.