In ‘A Modern View of Lunar Distances’ (Journal, 19, 131) H.M. Nautical Almanac Office has already covered most of the technical aspects of the method of lunar distances which the Almanac made practicable; in ‘The Foundation and Early Development of the Nautical Almanac’ (Journal, 18, 391), Dr. E. G. Forbes has given a scholarly, fully documented, account of the early history of the Almanac; and Mr. Sadler himself has written many articles on various aspects of the bicentenary. This general account, which necessarily must duplicate parts of these articles, is directed as far as practicable to those aspects that are likely to be of greatest interest to members of the Institute not technically concerned with astronomical navigation. The paper was presented, in an abridged version, at the Annual General Meeting on 25 October 1967.