The 1805 Dispatches #25.06 December 2025 4 of 10 THE 1805 CLUB NEW SERIES CONFERENCES – INAUGURAL EVENT 24 October 2025 MARKING TWO MILESTONES, the 220th anniversary of Trafalgar and the 35th of The 1805 Club, this conference brought together leading naval historians — including two winners of the Hattendorf Prize — at a venue directly opposite HMS Victory. Our successful earlier conferences, under the creative chairmanship of Peter Warwick, mostly used battle bicentenaries as their focal points. Then the bicentenaries ended, Peter sadly died, Covid-19 killed off much social contact, and organising conferences faded. But we never quite forgot about them, we missed their stimulus, and we came up with a new concept: How about conferences that DON’T hang onto anniversaries? That don’t even insist on our period, the Georgian era? Conferences that — simply but wonderfully — celebrate recent top-drawer naval historical research and writing? So that’s our new approach: flexible, fun, and guided by some of the greatest recent writing. And at the inaugural event in the Princess Royal Gallery, that approach brought us papers from ANDREW LAMBERT, MICHAEL BARRITT, NATACHA ABRIAT, DAVID GIBBINS, BRIAN LAVERY, SETH LEJACQ, and NICK HEWITT, all wrapped up with a wide-ranging conversation led by N A M RODGER. The 1805 Club’s return to the Conference scene was a socially enjoyable and intellectually stimulating experience, well worth the organisational effort — and its Proceedings will be published in 2026. Our plan is to run these New Series conferences every three years, to allow enough time for a wide choice of really good new works to emerge, and to have each the day before our Trafalgar Night Dinner, to make a really good weekend of it: which means the next Conference/ TND pairing will be Friday 20 and Saturday 21 October 2028 – Trafalgar Day itself! Save the Date! NAVAL HISTORIANS’ TOM POCOCK MEMORIAL LUNCH For many years, the historian and newspaperman, Tom Pocock convened dinners at the Garrick, for a group of fellow authors, around Trafalgar Day, thus unifying those who often work in isolation. Since Tom’s death in 2007, Professor Derek Law (of SNR fame) took over and the dinners were held at the Reform Club. This year is the centenary of Tom Pocock’s birth, so Derek Law, Peter Hore and Michael Nash (1805 Club founder) organised a commemorative lunch at The Army and Navy Club, for about three dozen naval historians. On Thursday 23 October, some members and friends of The 1805 Club attended including Natacha Abriat, Michael Barritt, Sim and Nikki Comfort, David Davies, Peter Hore (ex-member), Julian Mannering, Penny Pocock and Peter Turner. Unfortunately, Michael Nash was indisposed on the day, so missed the fun.
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