Professor Cortesão sent the following message to the Annual General Meeting of the Institute on 23 October which he had been unable to attend to receive personally his Honorary Membership. An account of the meeting appears at page 111.

The Honorary Membership which the Royal Institute of Navigation bestows upon me, when I have reached the eighty-fourth year of my laborious life, the last forty years of which have been largely dedicated to the study of the history of early cartography and navigation, impresses me deeply and I am very sorry that, due only to my advanced age, I cannot be present at this ceremony to thank you personally for such a great distinction.