AGM 1988 The RNLI's annual meetings for 1988 will take place on Tuesday, May 10 at the South Bank, London. The governors' annual general meeting takes place in the Queen Elizabeth Hall at 11.30 am and the annual presentation of awards to lifeboatmen and honorary workers will take place at 2.30 pm in the Royal Festival Hall. All governors of the RNLI should find an application form enclosed in this issue for both the morning and afternoon meetings. If, by any chance, there is no application form enclosed and you are a governor wishing to attend either meeting, please write to The Director, RNLI, West Quay Road, Poole, Dorset BH15 1HZ, giving your requirements. To save postage, there is no need to return the form if you do not wish to attend either meeting, nor receive a copy of the annual report and accounts.

Branches and guilds will receive details of how to apply for tickets for the afternoon presentation of awards from their regional office in the usual way.

Other supporters of the RNLI who wish to attend the presentation should write to the director at the above address.

Open days The Poole headquarters, depot and training centre of the RNLI will be open to the public on Friday 29 and Saturday 30 July, 1988. Full details will appear in the spring edition of THE LIFEBOAT.

Primate's visit The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Robert Runcie, a vice president of the RNLI, visited Truro on November 5, 1987 and took the opportunity to meet members of the crew, officials and voluntary workers connected with 12 Cornish lifeboats.

Archbishop Runcie was welcomed by Lt Cmdr Jeremy Tetley, DL, RN, also avice president of the Institution, Anthony Oliver, its head of fund raising and Lt John Unwin, divisional inspector of lifeboats for the south west.

During his visit, the Archbishop volunteered to act as a casualty and to be airlifted from the Falmouth lifeboat by a rescue helicopter from RNAS Culdrose.

He was joined in this venture by the Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Peter Mumford, who was also hauled 20ft up in to the helicopter from the stern of the relief lifeboat Ralph and Bonella Farrant, Falmouth's own Elizabeth Ann being away on refit.

Both said they had thoroughly enjoyed the experience and the Archbishop—whose predecessor Dr Manners Sutton presided at the Institution's inaugural meeting—took the lifeboat's helm under speed, watched by Coxswain Vivien Pentecost, whom he later presented with a signed photograph and a replica of the Great Seal of Canterbury.

RHS awards The Royal Humane Society's testimonial on vellum has been awarded to two Clacton men—one a lifeboat crew member—following the rescue of a man from the waters close to the Essex resort's pier during a force 8 gale in January, 1987. Crew Member Mark Edwards and local fisherman Trevor Fox both entered the freezing water to bring the man back to the shore.NEWS POINT TRIBUTE TO THEIR WORK The decision to name a new Tyne class lifeboat RNLB Voluntary Worker is a fitting tribute to the untiring efforts and hard work of the RNLI's many volunteer lifeboatmen, fund raisers, station officials and shore helpers.

The work of lifeboatmen and other volunteers at a lifeboat station is justifiably appreciated by all supporters of the RNLI and this decision is clearly a tribute to them.

Possibly not enough is said of the work of the Institution's fund raisers.

Branches and guilds are asked to gear their activities towards keeping the RNLI's general funds at a level sufficient to enable it to run a modern, fast, efficient fleet •of lifeboats at over 200 lifeboat stations throughout Great Britain and Ireland.

That they respond so magnificently each year (and have done for many generations past) is a tribute to their selfless devotion to the lifeboatmen and women who operate that fleet, enabling the lifeboat service to remain in a constant state of readiness to meet any emergency at sea, whatever the conditions or at whatever the time of day or night.

Naming the new boat Voluntary Worker is the RNLI's way of honouring that devotion and to show its gratitude for the enormous contribution made by the Institution's fund raisers as well as its operators in keeping the lifeboat service in peak condition.

Generous gift Appledore's new £537,000 47ft Tyne class lifeboat, currently being built at the Fairey Marinteknik (UK) Ltd boatyard, Cowes, Isle of Wight, is to be funded by the G C Gibson Charitable Trust and named George Gibson after Mr George C Gibson.

Although Mr Gibson, who is aged 91, lives in Newmarket he has close ties with the south west and Appledore in particular.

From 1942 he chaired two family shipping companies. The AtlanticShipping and Trading Co Ltd and W J Tatem Ltd, companies founded by the late Lord Glanely of Appledore, who also provided the windows of Appledore church and named one of his early ships after his birthplace.

The new boat is expected to be on station in May, 1988 and will be moored afloat, although her steel hull has also been specially designed for slipway launching.

Her arrival at Appledore will complete the network of lifeboat cover in the Bristol Channel and, as announced in the autumn edition of THE LIFEBOAT will herald the end of the Clyde class of lifeboat, with the withdrawal of Clovelly's 70ft boat of that type.

Royal visit The visit to Poole headquarters, depot and training centre last October by HRH The Duke of Kent proved to be a relaxed and informal occasion, giving the RNLI's president the chance to meet members of staff in their normal working environment and giving himself the opportunity to become acquainted with several changes which have occurred at West Quay Road since his last visit there in 1980.

Accompanied by the Rt Hon The Lord Digby, HM Lord Lieutenant of Dorset, the county's deputy chief constable Mr W Girven and the Duke's private secretary, Lt Cmdr Sir Richard Buckley, His Royal Highness went first to the training centre, there to be greeted by the Duke of Atholl, chairman and Rear Admiral W J Graham, director of the Institution.

Outside, the weather was cold, grey and damp, in contrast to the bright, modern training facilities inside the building, formally opened earlier in the year by Sir Peter Walters, chairman of British Petroleum, the project's sponsors.

Next, the president toured the depot, workshop and stores, before being shown the Bill Knott fund raising support centre, another building new to the Duke.

Pausing to sign the gatehouse visitors' book, the Duke then crossed to the headquarters building, where Admiral Graham presented Lt Cmdr BrianMiles, deputy director and Ray Kipling, assistant director.

Pausing first in the museum area , the president went on to visit each department in turn, ending at the operations room, where he signed another visitors' book.

Fifty long serving staff members were later invited to attend a buffet luncheon, at which the informal mood continued before the president took his leave to travel to another engagement.The voluntary worker The RNLI has announced that a new 47ft Tyne class lifeboat, currently being built by Fairey Marinteknik (UK) Ltd, Cowes, Isle of Wight, is to be named RNLB Voluntary Worker, in recognition of the stalwart work of the Institution's lifeboat crews, fund raising branches and guilds and stations officials and shore helpers.

Due for completion in mid-1988, the new boat will join the RNLI's relief fleet and will spend her career relieving station boats of the same class around Great Britain and Ireland, to enable her to be seen by as many as possible of those whose tireless work has helped to fund her.

The £56,000 cost of the lifeboat will be met in part from the Institution's general funds, to which the majority of money raised by branches and guilds is allocated each year and also from the £250,000 proceeds of the lottery run inconjunction with Volvo cars. Tickets for the lottery were sold by voluntary fund raisers, whose efforts, together with the generosity of Volvo Concessionaires Ltd, contributed enormously to the appeal's success.

Free entry The first Plymouth Boat Show planned to take place at Queen Anne's Battery, Coxside, Plymouth from April 1 to 10, 1988 has a strong RNLI involvement.

Two of the three directors of promoters Pilgrim Promotions Ltd have direct connections with the local station branch, the RNLI will be featured at the show and lifeboat crew members turning up with proof of identity will be granted free entry.

Of the three directors, Vice Admiral Sir Robert Gerken, KCB, CBE is president and chairman of the City of Plymouth Lifeboat Appeal, to raise funds for a replacement lifeboat there and Fred Jackson is assistant mechanic of the present Plymouth lifeboat.

Protective clothing The protective clothing working party, appointed by the RNLI's medical and survival committee (not as stated in the autumn issue) reports that the new traffic yellow foul weather clothing developed over the past few years will soon become a familiar sight around the coast, as lifeboat crews are issued with the new kit this year.

Set the task of finding a replacement for the orange foul weather clothing normally worn by lifeboatmen, the working party, under the chairmanship of Captain George R Cooper, now chief of operations, drew up a specification and asked manufacturers to produce a suit which met the Institution's requirements.

Seven companies produced nine suits between them, from which two were shortlisted before the Musto design was finally chosen. That suit underwent a period of operational evaluation, with the working party making further improvements to the specification, helped by the work of Dr Richard Allan, head of environmental science at the RAF'S Institute of Aviation Medicine, Farnborough.

After a further period of evaluation on the coast, the suit was finally (Continued on page 231).