ANNUAL REPORT
and Statement of Receipts and Payments for the Year ending
31st December 1928
Your Committee has much pleasure in presenting the Sixty Second Annual report to our members and friends.
The year under review has been singularly free from accidents at the mouth of the Tyne. At other places round our coast many lives have been saved by the Rocket Apparatus, but we have not been called out by the Alarm Guns.
Our efficiency has been maintained by our usual monthly drills, and also by dummy drills inside the Brigade House. We had two important drills this year, one on August 1st, when the Cliff Ladder was taken to the Trow Rocks, lowered down the rocks and some members climbed down and up again, and on October 6th the wagon was taken to Frenchman’s Bay, a rocket fired over a convenient boulder down below, the cliff ladder lowered, the whip and hawser made fast, and the full drill gone through under the command of Inspector Bacchus and our own captains. We had no watches the early part of the year, in fact, nothing till December 30th, when a watch was kept owing to a strong wind from E. N. E.
On June 2nd we had the melancholy duty of attending the funeral of our Honorary Captain T. B. Grimes. It is a few years since he resigned his active interest in the Brigade, but he frequently joined us when anything special was proceeding.
On August 18th, Captain Rashleigh, R.N., His Majesty’s Inspector General of Life Saving Apparatus, inspected the Coastguard Station and apparatus, also the Brigade House and tower where a telephone had been recently installed to enable the Coastguard to keep watch there.
Representatives of the Coastguard and Brigade attended the funeral of Mr W. Boucher at Blyth, who died after a long illness. He was Divisional Officer of Coastguard for the district from South Shields to Berwick. He was much esteemed by all who met him.
We heartily thank our Honorary Members for the support they have given us. From the Balance Sheet it will be noticed that there is a debit balance of £5/0/10. It is by exercising the most stringent economy that we are able to meet our liabilities, and it is chiefly due to the financial assistance we have received from our Honorary Members and subscribers that the Brigade can continue its work. We are anxious to enrol more Hon. Members; this incurs a subscription to the funds of £1/1/0 per annum. Smaller donations will also be welcomed. The Hon. Treasurer, Capt. James Page, 67 King Street, South Shields, will be pleased at any time to receive and acknowledge receipt of the same. We still have vacancies in the Brigade for new Members and the Committee are ready to receive the names of any suitable men who desire to join the Brigade.