3 As we know Pitt said, “That won’t do, you must take command”. Yet on joining Collingwood off Cadiz Nelson wrote to reassure his old friend that, “No man has more confidence in another man than I have in you: and no man will render your services more justice than your very old friend.” And they were very old friends. They had kept closely in touch with each other for over thirty years. Theirs was a special relationship, at once more personal and intimate than any Nelson had with his Band of Brother captains. Collingwood’s qualities and strengths, particularly his self control – what biographer Max Adams describes as ‘The Collingwood Touch’, were admired, possibly even envied by Nelson. Nothing epitomises the closeness of their friendship more than Nelson’s last message to Collingwood given as he lay dying in the gloomy cockpit of Victory with the battle raging all around him: He sent Collingwood his “love”. This irresistible affection emphasises an equally profound belief expressed in a letter where Nelson writes, “My dear Coll., we are as one and I hope it ever shall be.” Two hundred years later in the Cathedral Church of St Nicholas it was thus. Inevitably this Dispatch, indeed this issue of The Kedge Anchor, is dominated by the Collingwood bicentenary. However, I would not wish it to overshadow the success of the third Nelson Funeral Walk on Saturday, 9 January, organised by Richard Venn who heads the South East Group, with support from members Susan Amos and Louis Roeder. This is a splendid way to start the year and I very much hope that it will be an annual event! Memorable events, particularly those like Collingwood 2010 raise the profile of the Club. They enhance our ability to raise funds for future conservation projects, since research has established that reputation is the key factor in successful fundraising. Next year it will be a major pillar of our activities as we embark on the Nile and Copenhagen Captains’ conservations. However, there has already been some fundraising progress. In particular I would like to highlight the number of donations from members whilst renewing their annual subscriptions. So far this year they have amounted to £895.00. We are incredibly grateful for this support and I am still in the process of writing to each donor individually to say ‘thank you’. The improvements to The Kedge Anchor over the years have also burnished the Club’s profile. This issue is the last to be worked on by our UK editors, Paul and Penny Dalton, a superb team in place for seven years which stands down at the AGM in May. They have done an absolutely fantastic job and we shall miss their skill, dedication and enthusiasm. Let this be the first of the many huzzas they deserve. Many of you will know that this year also celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the Club and we are planning a number of special events in recognition of this. The true anniversary comes in October and it will be celebrated at our Trafalgar Dinner on Saturday, 16 October at Newhouse. Moreover, after the Members’ Day on Saturday, 15 May we are arranging a special dinner in HMS Victory which will pay tribute to those ‘gone but not forgotten’. For in our twentieth year we do not wish to lose sight of the wonderful contributions made by the late Dame Lily Lambert McCarthy CBE, Tom Pocock, Dr Colin White and Lieutenant Commander David Harris MBE Royal Navy. While the dinner will be in their honour, we shall not reflect on the past only. We shall also look to the future which we are building on the foundations they laid. That future will be represented by our two new Vice Presidents in waiting, Rear Admiral Joe Callo USN RD and Dr Agustín Guimerá – and one other. It now gives me enormous pleasure to confirm that the Club has in waiting a new President: Admiral Sir Jonathon Band GCB, former First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff. Jonathon’s acceptance is a singular honour for The 1805 Club and he will be a brilliant friend and asset as we go forward into its next twenty years. What a marvellous way to end a Chairman’s Dispatch! With very best wishes to you all, Peter Warwick Left to right: Lynda and Peter Sebbage, the Very Revd Christopher Dalliston and Peter Warwick. Lynda spent two years preparing the Bicentenary Commemoration Service but this was her first meeting with the Dean of St Nicholas, Cathedral Church of Newcastle upon Tyne.
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