JULY 14TH. - WELLS, NORFOLK. At 5.39 A.M. a message was received from the coastguard that an aeroplane had crashed into the sea three miles away. She was a Lancaster bomber. At 5.52 came another message asking the life-boat to launch, and the motor life-boat Royal Silver Jubilee, 1910- 1935 was afloat at 6.15. Dr. E. W. Hicks, the honorary secretary of the station, went with her. A freshening wind was blowing from the north, with a moderate sea. The life-boat found the aeroplane standing on her nose, with her tail and part of her port wing blown away. One airman, almost pulseless, but still conscious and moaning with pain, was clinging to the underside of the port wing. He was lifted into the lifeboat.

There was no sign of any other member of the crew, so the coxswain hoisted himself on to the edge of the wing and walked along it to the fuselage. Its top had been blown away and he climbed inside to search for the rest of the crew, who might still be aboard, injured and helpless. At any moment the aeroplane might have turned over, or sunk, and the coxswain would have been trapped inside her. He searched but found no one, and the life-boat put back to Wells, where she arrived at 7.30. The injured man was landed and taken to hospital, but later be died. The life-boat then returned to the aeroplane and made a further search. She found nothing except a rubber dinghy, about a mile away. At 8.40 the aeroplane sank.

An Air-Sea Rescue launch, with the help of aeroplanes, began a wider search, and the life-boat returned to her station, where she arrived at 9.15. Some of the bodies of the other six men of the bomber, all of whom lost their lives, were recovered later.

In recognition of his gallantry in going on board the aeroplane, the Institution awarded its thanks inscribed on vellum to COXSWAIN THEODORE. L. NEILSEN. - Rewards, £8 10s. 3d.