2 THE CHAIRMAN’S DISPATCH The Boast of Old Northumberland When Nelson sailed for Trafalgar With all his country’s best, He held them dear as brothers are, But one beyond the rest. For when the fleet with heroes manned To clear the decks began, The boast of old Northumberland He sent to lead the Van. Himself by Victory’s bulwarks stood And cheered to see the sight; “That noble fellow Collingwood, How bold he goes to fight!” [ From Northumberland, “The Old and Bold” By Sir Henry Newbolt ] A lmost two hundred years to the date of this issue of The Kedge Anchor a very weary sailor who had suffered serious strains to both his health and happiness wrote in a letter to his sister: You will be sorry to hear my poor dog Bounce is dead. I am afraid he fell overboard in the night. He is a great loss to me. I have few comforts, but he was one, for he loved me. Everybody sorrows for him. He was wiser than (many) who hold their heads higher and was grateful (to those) who were kind to him. That 62 year-old sailor was Vice-Admiral Lord Cuthbert Collingwood. Referred to by biographer Max Adams as ‘Nelson’s own hero’, Collingwood has recently emerged from under the shadow cast by his great friend. His five years in command of the prestigious Mediterranean Fleet after Trafalgar are now seen as a culmination of an active and successful career, which revealed his mastery of strategy and diplomacy and instinctive judgement when dealing with foreign powers and affairs. This deftness is revealed in a letter to one of his captains, to whom he writes, ‘We must take care that those nations whose hearts are really with us, and who on the first happy change would be openly on our side, may not, by any intemperate act of ours, be thrown into the hands of the enemy.’ British ministers and the Admiralty held him in such high esteem they kept him on station and even refused his requests for leave. Given virtually a free hand by the Admiralty and the poor communications with his political masters, Collingwood’s strategic vision and understanding of the region, including the importance of North Africa, became the very essence of British government policy. His overtures to the Turks, his support for the Spanish, Portuguese and British involved in the fight against the French in the Iberian Peninsula, his blockade of Toulon, and his initiative in seizing the Ionian Islands from the French are fine examples of his actions. He may not have been involved in any spectacular naval engagements after Trafalgar, but then who was? But his renown for seamanship and gunnery was more than a match for anything the French could deploy as is seen from the way in the last few months of his life he intercepted and destroyed a French convoy running supplies into the garrison of Barcelona. As historian Piers Macksey wrote, ‘The scale (of the Mediterranean theatre) was heroic, and over the vast canvas towers the figure of Collingwood.’ If Collingwood had one weakness it was his inability to delegate and relax. The stress of the workload weighed heavily until towards the end of 1809 his health began to deteriorate. By February of the following year he could hardly walk. He was ‘so weak that application to business is impossible’. At last the Admiralty allowed him to come home but two days into the voyage from Port Mahon he died. Collingwood never saw his wife or precious daughters again, nor did he listen to the blackbirds in his beloved Northumbrian garden. He was laid to rest next to Nelson in St Paul’s Cathedral. Every year wreaths are laid at Nelson’s tomb on 21st October and last year for the first time, members of the Collingwood family paid homage to their ancestor at the same time as well. We hope this will become a regular tradition.
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