After only six months of war the Admiralty sent a special letter of thanks to the Institution for the "exemplary spirit ot courage and endurance, in which, without fear or thought of self, the life-boatmen have never spared their strength and skill in helping their brother sailors in distress from the dangers of the sea and the violence of the enemy." The Air Council has recently thanked the Institution for "its continued and valuable work in aiding the rescue of airmen, who have been forced to land in the sea, work which has enabled a great number of these men to be picked up".

The Ministry of Shipping specially thanked the Institution for its "public spirited response to the Ministry's appeal for life-boats to go to Dunkirk" and for ''its generosity in accepting the expenditure"..