Over the years the RNLI's dependence on money left to it in legacies has helped keep the Institution buoyant, providing a regular backbone to the income raised by volunteers and Shoreline members and enabling it to build and maintain a fleet of lifeboats which is second to none.

However the fact that 60% of the money needed to run the lifeboat service came from this source proved to be something of a double-edged sword when legacy income began to fall.

Income from legacies peaked in 1993 and then levelled off in 1994.

Was this simply a 'blip' or was it the beginning of a long-term decline? Deciding which was not as easy as it may seem, and it was not until the results had been carefully analysed, month by month during 1994 that the falling trend could clearly be seen.

The RNLI's experience was by then being felt by other charities which had previously had a significant legacy income, and was further born out by independent national surveys which predicted that the decline in charitable legacies would continue for some years.

This was, of course, very bad news for the RNLI which, uniquely among charities, has a large capital expenditure and which must plan at least 20 years into the future so that lifeboats can be replaced by new ones at the end of their working lives.

In 1994 income from legacies had fallen by £1.6m from the previous year, and so early in 1995 — with the short term figures showing a quickening fall — the RNLI launched an initiative to try to stem the drop in legacy income, and to try to reverse it if at all possible.

The Institution was aware that it was swimming against a nationaltide, but if the lifeboat service was to continue at its present level of cover — and move forward into the next century — it was a decline which had to be addressed.

An appeal letter in The Lifeboat began the work, and as a result more than 350 people asked for the newly-prepared booklet 'Preserving all you Value'. 170 pledges of legacy support were received and more than 5,000 people replied to say that they had included the RNLI in their will.

This was an excellent response, showing that the supporters of the lifeboat service were still willing to back it in one of the most effective ways they know. Backed up by even greater fundraising efforts on the part of branches, guilds and members and with the new corporate partnerships beginning to produce results the RNLI's income last year held up and all of the plans could be carried through.

However, with the cost of building and maintaining the fleet climbing inexorably and the demands on the service increasing year by year - 1995 was yet another record year for call-outs — there is no room for complacency. A regularregular income from legacies is still vital to meet the commitments already made to build better and faster lifeboats to ensure that the right lifeboat cover is in place around the coast to help everyone from the commercial sailor, the ferry passenger, the leisure sea user and even those who never thought they may need a lifeboat.

Many a walker has been rescued by a lifeboat when cut off by the tide and many a child has been saved when his inflatable air bed was blown out to sea.

Such a wide range of casualties demands a wide range of lifeboats and a wide range of skills from their crews. The volunteers will always come forward, and a legacy can provide the means for them to do the job.

All-weather lifeboats are expensive, yet some legacies are large enough to build a complete boat, often carrying a name chosen to commemorate a family member.

Legacies which partly fund a lifeboat also often result in a commemorative name and others — which may be used for a specific item such as the engines — result in the commemorative plaques which are to be found in so many boathouses.

Valuable as these larger legacies are it is the smaller ones which make up the largest number of bequests to the RNLI. Few of us will be able to leave a bequest for an all-weather lifeboat, but most of us would be able to help build an inshore lifeboat or simply help to ensure that the lifeboat service goes into the next century in a fit state to carry on the work of the last 172 years.f a relatively large legacy is left to the Institution it may be possible to name a new lifeboat in memory of a much-loved family member.

Smaller bequests can be recorded on a plaque in a boathouse.

In the year in which Moira Barrie left the RNLI her bequest the Institution received more than 2,600 legacies - ranging from a £5 gift to a £5m bequest. Many of these came from people who would not have considered themselves 'rich' by any standards. All bequests, of whatever size, are much appreciated by the Institution, and never more so than now - with income from from legacies under pressure and demands on the service and costs continually rising.Moira Barrie, who was the honorary secretary of the Broadway guild in Worcestershire, left a valuable legacy to the Institution in the form of a bequest which almost totally funded the Barmouth lifeboat in Wales. The Mersey class lifeboat was appropriately named Moira Barrie.

This lifeboat, the 26th Mersey to be built, was named at her station in May 1993, when Moira's sister, the late Miss Sheila Barrie formally handed over the lifeboat to the Institution in a very moving ceremony and service of dedication.

Thus began a special relationship between inland supporters in land-locked Worcestershire and the community at Barmouth, a seaside town in Gwynedd, Wales - which is immensely proud of Moira Barrie and her brave crew..