[ The Civil Service Life-Boat Fund. ] Two Autograph Volumes by Honorary Secretary Charles Dibdin, including minutes, accounts, lists of offices and addresses, and corrected printed lists of Civil Service employees.

The Civil Service Life-Boat Fund (now the Lifeboat Fund) was founded by a group of civil servants wishing to donate a single lifeboat to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. In 1866 they issued an appeal for £300 to government offices and raised the sum within a year. Since then the charity has supplied the RNLI with more than fifty lifeboats, which have saved nearly five thousand lives. The present two volumes, for 1892 and 1897, are uniform in heavily-worn halfbindings with black cloth spines and marbled boards. Internally they are both in good condition, shaken and with light signs of age and wear. Both carry Dibdin's name and address on the first page. The purpose of the two volumes was to assist Dibdin in his work as secretary, with reference lists of names and addresses, and memoranda describing action to be taken. Both volumes contain around 30pp of printed lists of employees in the various civil service departments, on slips of paper laid down, heavily amended by Dibdin. ONE: 1892 volume. 80pp., 4to. Preceded by six-page index, and with 3pp of minutes for meeting of 18 January 1893 at rear, signed by chairman Charles G. Turner, CB, including thanks 'to the Committee and Subscribers to the Fund for the sum of £1000 to complete the endowment Fund of the Lifeboat “Civil Service No. 7” stationed at Kingstown and also for the sum of £116 to recoup the Institution the amount paid by it during the year 1892 to the Crews of the Civil Service Boats for Services'. Sections include: 'Amounts Received' (£1190 4 s 1 ½ d); 'Expenditure'; 'List of Offices, Names & Adds. of Collectors'; 'Memoranda'; 'New Depts: - Patrons, Members of Committees'; 'Newspapers – Office Addresses'; 'Vice-Patrons – Addresses'. TWO: Volume for 1897. 85pp., 4to. With similar index, and divided into same sections, as 1892 volume. Five-page minutes for meeting on 19 January 1898 at rear, again signed by Turner, CB, including report by Dibdin that he had 'paid to the National Institution the sum of £223. 3/- pr rewards to the C. S. Lifeboat Crews for Services in 1897 and 429. 1. 5 for the maintenance of the seven stations, at which the Civil Service Life Boats are placed, for the year 1897'.