Freedom of Swansea The officers, committee and crew of The Mumbles lifeboat station were honoured with the Freedom of the City of Swansea on April 23, 1987, when the Lord Mayor of Swansea, Councillor Mrs Lilian Hopkin, presented the freedom scroll to Dr A. J. R. Hudson, chairman of the station branch.

Coxswain Derek Scott BEM presented the council with one of his marine paintings and Captain Ken Carstens, the station honorary secretary, presented an RNLI shield to the City.

Men of the Year Sixteen of the RNLI's most decorated lifeboatmen attended a dinner to mark the 21st anniversary of the Men of the Year Award, at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, London on March 19.

The award, presented by the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation (RADAR) has gone to 20 lifeboatmen during the past 21 years.

Three of the 16 who attended the anniversary dinner hold the gold medal, 12 silver medals and nine bronze, as well as countless other bravery awards.

Those attending were Keith Bower (ex-Torbay), Michael Scalesex-Guernsey), Brian Bevan (Humber), Derek Scott (ex-The Mumbles), Eric Offer (Dun Laoghaire), Alf Pavey (ex- Weymouth), George Leith (ex- Lerwick), Barry Pike (Torbay), Dr.

Peter Davey (Hastings), David Kennett Yarmouth, Isle of Wight), Kenneth Voice (ex-Shoreham Harbour), Charles Bowry (ex-Sheerness and Portpatrick), Keith Willacy (ex-Morecambe), Arthur Hill (Largs), Donald McKay (Wick) and Ronald Cannon (Ramsgate).NEWS POINT TRAINING MILESTONE The days of oar and sail, when the most knowledge needed by lifeboatmen was that of local winds and tides, sandbanks and rocks, are as remote from the modern fleet as could be.

Now, we send our lifeboat crews—no less courageous than their forebears—to sea in fast, efficient craft, bristling with new technology and designed to achieve that saving of life as quickly and competently as possible.

The crews themselves, drawn from a much wider range of backgrounds and professions than of old, are encouraged to become as skilled in the techniques of life-saving and to acquire as much knowledge of the modern lifeboat's equipment as they can.

To this end, the RNLI's training staff have for some time been on the road, visiting coastal stations with specially equipped training caravans.

Now, with the opening in May by Sir Peter Walters, chairman of British Petroleum, of the new training centre at Poole, another milestone has been reached along the road of progress in improving the efficiency of the lifeboat service.

For future generations of lifesavers and for those they save, the importance of this new facility cannot be over-emphasised.

Today's lifeboatmen may be volunteers and the RNLI itself run on an entirely voluntary basis, but lifeboat crews are professionals and the RNLI will always look for ways to ensure that they provide the most effective service possible.Training centre opens Sir Peter Walters (pictured above), chairman of British Petroleum, visited Poole in May officially to open the RNLI's new training centre.

BP's generous gift of £60,000 paid for the fitting out of the centre as well as the costs of all crew training in Poole in 1987.

He and other company representatives were shown around the new centre and the rest of Poole headquarters and depot by the director, Rear Admiral W. J. Graham, who thanked Sir Peter for BP's involvement.

In 1976, the company provided a 54ft Arun class lifeboat BP Forties for Aberdeen and has supported other lifeboat appeals.

The training centre's up-to-date facilities include a large lecture room with overhead projectors and other audio visual aids and a video edit suite for the production of training films.

Every lifeboat crew receiving a new lifeboat over ten metres will attend the centre for a week's training to include classroom work and practical experience at sea on the new lifeboat.

The RNLI already uses mobile training units which visit stations all round the coast, to train crews in the use of radio and radar.

Crews of Atlantic 21 class lifeboats receive a rigorous week's training course at the Cowes Base, Isle of Wight, and five Atlantic 21's with crews from Lymington and Falmouth in training arrived from Cowes in time for the opening ceremony.

Moored alongside the depot quay was the RNLI's newest 47ft Tyne class lifeboat, The Lady Rank, awaiting her crew from Angle, who were at the training centre for a week in June.41 Club cheque The Duke of Atholl, chairman of the RNLI, attended the 42nd annual conference of the 41 Club—the Association of ex-Round Tablers—at the Bournemouth International Centre in April and was presented with a cheque for £30,000 by the club's retiring president, Mr Andy Wallace. The money will fund two 16ft D class lifeboats.

There were 800 delegates at the twoday conference. Members of 41 Club chose the RNLI as the charity to benefit from various fund raising events, when they met for their 41st birthday conference in Blackpool last year.

Commenting on the gift, Anthony Oliver, the RNLI's head of fund raising said: "It is most generous of the 41 Club to celebrate its birthday by giving the RNLI a present. This cheque represents an enormous amount of hard work by the 41 Club members and we are sincerely grateful to them."Echo" Two new members have been elected to the committee of management of the RNLI. They are Professor Sir Gordon Robson CBE, FRCS, FFARCS and Air Vice Marshal John Tetley CB, cvo. Mrs Alison Saunders, already a member of the CoM, has been elected deputy chairman of the RNLI's fund raising committee.

To commemorate the centenary of the RNLI's consulting engineers, Messrs Lewis and Duvivier, the deputy director and chief of operations, Lt Cdr Brian Miles presented the company's Mr F. L. Terrett with a plaque at a reception at Poole headquarters on Maich 10. The company has since merged with Messrs Posford Pavry and Partners and will in future be known as Posford Duvivier.

Arbroath branch of the RNLI has been awarded the Arbroath Civic Society Award for 1987, following the extension to its new inshore lifeboathouse. The project was judged to enhance the townscape of Arbroath. The award was presented by Lord Muirsheil, chairman of the Civic Society in Scotland at a ceremony in Arbroath Library on April 27.

Central London collectors who opened a box used outside Victoria Station on flag day this year were surprised to find inside four Krugerands —valued at between £250 and £260 each. Mrs Sukey Agar, chairman of Central London Ladies' Committee, said a fifth Krugerand had been given to a collector in Piccadilly, boosting the flag day total to £21,000.

Workington lifeboat Pentland Civil Service 31, a 47ft Watson class, had its second narrow escape in two years when 100ft of dock wall collapsed some 50ft away from her stern on February 17. Two years ago a similar collapse occurred close to the boat's bows.

An unusual "rescue" took place at Hunstanton, Norfolk on May 1, when the RNLI's launching tractor was called upon to haul a Royal Navy Bomb Disposal Unit Land-Rover out from the mud, where it had become stuck..