25 years ago From The Life-Boat of 1970 At the RNLJ's Annual General Meeting and Presentation of Awards in 1970 the then Chairman, Admiral Woods, referred to the recent formation of the Yachtsman's Lifeboat Supporters Association - the forerunner of today's Membership scheme and the awards were made by its first member, round-the-world sailor Sir Alec Rose.

'Admiral Woods referred to the measures taken to invite greater support from a section of the community who make increasing calls on our boats and crews - namely those who put to sea for their own pleasure. At the beginning of the year the Yachtsman's Life-boat Supporters Association formally came into being, and by the end of the year it had over 3,000 members (today we have some 220,000 members-Ed) . This was a beginning and they looked forward to a time when every yacht or small boat sported the Y.L.A flag.

The first member of the Y.L.A. was the man who launched it - Sir Alec Rose. Sir Alec consented, in the unavoidable absence of the President of the R.N.L.I., the Duke of Kent, to present the awards.

Sir Alec, the round-the-world sailor and navigator, moved the customary resolution...

The speaker said that as a boy he had read the stories of great big square-rigged ships and the many stories of the heroism of the life-boatmen. Many times he had stood and looked across the water from the Downs to the Goodwin Sands. Sir Alec knew of the terrible tidal currents of the Goodwins and knew that to take a life-boat there in a storm needed great courage.

Sir Alec, like the true sailor he is, spoke with reverence of the power of the sea: 'No one knows the sea, which is a great leveller that soon cuts the bigheaded sailor down to size. In the tremendous gales I have experienced round the world I was often frightened as I set my course, but I did feel at those times that there was another hand on the tiller, and it was a great comfort. One cannot go to sea in those conditions without being aware of a higher being watching over us, and sailors are invariably God-fearing types. I have said this before, but they who go down to the sea in ships, they see the works of the Lord, and it is really true.

Sir Alec referred to 'murmurs of nationalisation', saying: 'It would be a sad day for the R.N.L.I. if it ever came to that. We would indeed hold our heads in shame, I think, and look and tremble at what it would be. Our present administration at head office would quickly treble or quadruple in size with people going about being answerable to ministers and whatever government was in office, and it would not be the same at all; our life-boatmen would come under this canopy and would feel different about the whole job, I am sure.

The whole essence of this is voluntary work and we are extremely lucky in having the Ladies' Guilds all over the country.