more than twenty ports, and was used until 1858, when it was superseded by the system of self-righting lifeboats. Palmer was deputy chairman of the society for over 25 years, and required his own ships to go to sea with the means of saving life. His role was crucial in getting Algernon Percy, 4th Duke of Northumberland appointed as president of the Institution (an office he held from 1851 to 1865, during which he undertook a reorganisation). In February 1853 he resigned his office, when the committee voted him the Gold Medal. In September 2008 this Gold Medal, with unique pendant in the shape of a lifeboat, was sold at auction for £3,200. Public life Palmer served as Sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1818. In 1821 he held the office of master of the Mercers' Company, and in that capacity he attended the Lord Mayor at the coronation of George IV on 19 July 1821. In 1832, when became a parliamentary borough, Palmer was a candidate for the Conservative Party, but was not elected. After winning an 1836 by-election for South Essex, Palmer raised the matter of deaths at sea caused by shipwrecks, in Parliament. In April 1839, He chaired a select committee looking at the regulation of timber trading ships crossing the Atlantic Ocean to British North America. The resulting report led to the recommendation that these ships should be barred from carrying loads on their decks. As the Timber Ships Bill, it was discussed first in the Commons (2nd reading, July 1839) and then the House of Lords (July 1840). Changes were first introduced in the Timber Ships, British North America Act 1840, then the Timber Ships, America Act 1842, and then finally the Timber Ships Act 1845, which expanded and finalised legislation which prohibited timber ships from carrying cargo on deck. Although he had not had experience in agriculture, he vowed to his constituents that he would defend the Corn Laws, and publicly rebuked the Prime Minister Robert Peel when he repealed them. Palmer sat in Parliament from 1836 to 1847, successful in three strongly-contested elections. Death Palmer died at Nazeing Park, Essex, on 12 May 1853. Works Palmer was the author of Memoir of a Chart from the Strait of Allass to the Island Bouro, 1799, and of A New Plan for fitting all Boats so that they may be secure as Life Boats at the shortest