The KEDGE ANCHOR is the newsletter of The 1805 Club. It is published twice a year in spring and Autumn and is distributed free to members. For information about the newsletter contact the Editor: Kenneth Flemming, 132 Slater Lane, Leyland, Preston Lancs, PR26 7SE, UK , +44 01772 513651 or mobile +44 07902919737. email: kenflemming@sky.com or Consulting Editor: Randy Mafit, 1980 Sunrise Blvd., Eugene, Oregon 97405, USA, phone +1 541-343-1894, email: randym1805@aol.com THE 1805 CLUB RECEIVES MASSIVE TREASURY SUPPORT Projects described ‘a fitting testament’ to the best military values. The 1805 Club has been awarded a LIBOR grant of £455,000 by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt. Hon. Philip Hammond MP, to fund a number of commemorative and educational projects related to the Battle of Trafalgar and Horatio Nelson. The announcement was made by the chancellor in his Autumn Statement 2016. While the news has been in the public domain since then this report is the first to overtly publicise the good news because Council wanted the membership to be the first to hear it. In October 2012 the Chancellor of the Exchequer (then the Rt. Hon. George Osborne MP) announced that the proceeds from LIBOR fines would be used to support those that represent the best values, in particular military and emergency services charities and other related good causes. The 1805 Club’s proposals met this criterion, being described as ‘a fitting testament to those values’. The Ministry of Defence has been delegated to act on behalf of the Treasury in all matters relating to the funding. The funds, which will be received in two tranches starting in April 2017, will be dedicated over the next three years to six projects. These are naval history lectures by leading naval historians for Royal Navy personnel; the provision of 25 Wooden World workshops to state schools; the purchase of two unique databases relating to naval personnel who served in the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars that will integrate with the development of a new Memorials Log and other related databases in an enhanced Club website; the preservation of the Marriage Register on the island of Nevis, which contains Horatio Nelson’s marriage certificate; the restoration of the Royal Naval Chapel, Vestry and associated Hall in the Old Royall Naval Hospital on the Isla de Rey in Mahon harbour, Menorca; and the appointment of a full time Director to promote the development of the 271 mile Trafalgar Way from Falmouth to London, set up by the Club in 2005. The application was masterminded by vice chairman Bill White. He comments, “For some time the Club has wanted to progress with a number of significant history related projects that would be in the interests of both the Club and the Royal Navy, and I contacted Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, the Club's President, for guidance as to whether these projects would be likely to meet the Treasury criteria for a LIBOR grant.” Sir Jonathon, who is also Chairman of the Trustees of the SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST: Vice Chairman’s Report 4 Otto Gustaf Nordenskjold 6 SUCKLING – A Peep into the Past 9 A Joyful Story 13 Obituary 18 Admiral Saumarez in the Baltic, 1808-1812 19 An unpublished letter by Nelson 26 AB&OS 31 Portrait of Emma by Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun 36 THE KEDGE ANCHOR NEWSLETTER OF THE 1805 CLUB INSIDE THIS ISSUE ______________ Continued on page 4 Issue 47 Spring 2017 Chairman’s Dispatch 2 From the Editor 3 News from Council 5 Ride the Trafalgar Way 16 Naval College Lunch 24 Peter Turner 32
2 THE KEDGE ANCHOR Issue 47—Spring 2017 Success to The 1805 Club! “First Gain the victory and then make the best use of it you can.” Horatio Nelson 1798 I wrote in my last Dispatch, This is an exciting time for The 1805 Club because after 25 years of activity, which has consolidated its credibility and reputation, the Club, like the country [post Brexit], is at a threshold. Your Council has been working to respond to the challenges and opportunities this presents and in addition to the changes to the Trafalgar Chronicle it is investing in a revamp of the website, led by Jo Birtwhistle, which will allow for the long-awaited Memorials Log to be published on line. We have also commissioned a feasibility study from Commander Garry Spalton RN rtd on a future strategy for The Trafalgar Way. The 1805 Club is now the official custodian of the Trafalgar Way and we are thrilled that Ride the Trafalgar Way is taking place in October. We shall be presenting The New Trafalgar Dispatch to the winning cyclist of each leg. We are also looking at ways to help support this splendid event in future years together with many other organisations along the Way who we are approaching to help us raise its profile. Bill White is masterminding this. Hitherto we have fulfilled our charitable objectives in a variety of ad hoc ways but there is now a call for a sustained approach that will build on these achievements and integrate the various co-related elements. The underpinning themes remain conservation and recording, education and the promotion of naval heritage. These aspirational words are worth repeating in full because Council also recognized that integrating these elements would release synergy and elevate the Club’s performance, productivity and profile. However, it could only meet this challenge with a significant boost to its resources, otherwise it would always be struggling to realise its true potential. I am now exceedingly pleased to announce that an application for funds to the Chancellor of the Exchequer has been extraordinarily successful! The 1805 Club has been awarded the incredible sum of £455,000. The Libor Fund was created from the criminal fines imposed on banks for a series of fraudulent actions connected to their manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate, the average interest rate calculated through submissions of interest rates by major banks across the world. The fines amounted to hundreds of millions of pounds and in 2012 the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the proceeds from Libor fines should be used to support those that represent the best of values, in particular military and emergency services charities and other related good causes. At approximately this time last year the Club made its initial overtures, was deemed to qualify, and at the request of the Chancellor prepared its business case. There was no guarantee that the application would be successful. I hope you can imagine the surprise and elation felt by Council when it received the news on 27 November 2016 that the submission had been approved! This grant of funds represents a huge step forward for your Club and how it now pursues its aims and activities. It is the most significant development since we became a charity and it is a fantastic way to open the chapter on the Club’s next twenty-five years. It is also a genuine recognition of our status as a member of the naval heritage family and significantly raises our game and profile in this community and beyond. We could not announce anything until we had received and agreed the Terms and Conditions and ratified acceptance, which Council did at its last meeting on 18 February. However, we wanted our members to be the first to hear of the good news and that is why it appears in The Kedge Anchor before anywhere else. We are indebted to Vice Chairman Bill White, who receives a huge vote of thanks from us all for masterminding the application and we congratulate him on its successful outcome. I have worked with Bill in the past on applications similar to this and I know how much work is involved, often to be unrequited – but not this time! It has been a fantastic effort by him and the successful outcome could not be sweeter. Now, for the first time he has written a Vice Chairman’s Dispatch for the KA, which reveals his motivations for his pursuit of Libor and his dedication to the Club generally. I shall use Nelson’s words, “Could anything from my pen add to the character of the Captains [in this case Bill], I would write it with pleasure, but that is impossible.” The application relates primarily to The Trafalgar Way, our educational ambitions, a memorials log and associated naval historical data sets, and a number of international conservation projects. More specifically the grant will be used: To facilitate the provision of naval history lectures by leading naval historians for Royal Navy personnel. To secure from their compiler two unique and at risk naval historical databases relating to naval personnel who served in the British fleet in the Napoleonic Wars and to host them on the Club website. Also, to expand and enhance the Club database relating to naval monuments and artefacts to be hosted on the Club website To conserve the rapidly deteriorating Marriage Register on the island of Nevis that contains Lord Nelson's marriage certificate; also to provide a humidity controlled display case for the conserved Register and a digital copy of the Register for wider use. To restore the partly ruined chapel and associated hall. At the Old Royal Naval Hospital on the Isla del Rey in the harbour of Mahon, Menorca. To establish an organisation under the aegis of the Club to promote and develop The Trafalgar Way with activities, including lectures, films, cycle challenges, events for horse drawn vehicles (a post chaise was used in 1805 to bring the original Trafalgar Dispatch to London), events involving schools, notably Wooden World Workshops, and possibly to provide a
3 THE KEDGE ANCHOR Issue 47—Spring 2017 FROM THE EDITOR Please note the next edition is due in Autumn 2017. The deadline for copy will therefore be 21 September 2017. Your editor will be pleased to receive your ideas and contributions at an early date. platform to facilitate Royal Navy recruitment. The aim will be to appoint a Director whose brief will be to ensure that the organisation becomes financially self-sufficient in three years. To provide 25 Wooden World Workshops to state schools for students at Key Stages 2 and 3. With this evolution comes a greater responsibility and during recent months your Council has also been working on all aspects of corporate governance. This will be highlighted at the AGM and Members’ day on Saturday 13 May alongside the details of the business plan behind this fantastic development. We are meeting once again at The East India Club, St James’s Square and I thank Stephen Howarth for looking after the administrative arrangements with the Club. I am also delighted that this year’s Cecil Isaacson memorial Lecture is being given by Gareth Glover. It is entitled, The War in the Mediterranean 1793-1815 & the birth of Modern Combined Operations. Notwithstanding the momentous news about the Libor grant the timing of its announcement is tinged with sadness by the death of June Jeffries late last year and the more recent and sudden deaths of Dr Nick Slope and Martyn Heighton. June was well known to all those who had the pleasure of attending the Club’s memorable Trafalgar Dinners at Newhouse. A wonderful host, warm-hearted and generous, she treated us like family and welcomed us into her home allowing us to do whatever we wished. A slight and diminutive woman, she had a big presence. It is no surprise that over 200 attended her funeral. Nick Slope was a former chairman of The Nelson Society and a distinguished and much respected archaeologist and naval historian who worked happily alongside The 1805 Club an especially as part of the Official Nelson Commemorations Committee preparing for the Trafalgar bicentenary in 2005. Martyn Heigthton was arguably the leading light of the maritime heritage community and chairman of National Historic Ships (NHS), the organisation established by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to encourage the awareness and preservation of historic vessels in Britain. Martyn transformed a tiny organisation - the NHS - into a successful catalyst for ship preservation through successive grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and by establishing a comprehensive Historic Ships’ Register. Martyn set a fine example for what The 1805 Club has to do now: make the best use of our victory. This leads me nicely to highlight the letter in this issue from the Club’s new Chaplain, Lynda Sebbage. She is keen to extend pastoral care to the membership and this underlines one of the most important features of The 1805 Club, which the Libor grant will not change - our warm and friendly atmosphere and the pleasure we know this brings to our members. With all good wishes, Yours aye, It is pleasing for an editor when articles are received from the membership who have a particular field of expertise, coupled with a deep understanding and knowledge of their subject. When a number are offered it is quite special; and one I am sure the membership are equally delighted to read as it is to present them. In this issue, we have an erudite account of Admiral James de Saumarez in the Baltic by Dr Tim Voelcker an international scholar who has earned a fine reputation for his knowledge of Saumarez. Here he runs parallel with Captain Christer Hägg RSwN rtd to answer points raised about Saumarez in issues 45 and 46 of The Kedge Anchor. The article is accompanied by some fine illustrations. All which give a greater understanding of a relatively little understood and researched figure. Christer Hägg in return has produced another fine paper based on a remarkable countryman Lieutenant Otto Gustaf Nordenskjold of the Royal Swedish Navy and his extraordinary duel service of three years in the Royal Navy. It is a delight to read of different nationalities who took their professionalism from the roots of the Royal Navy and went on to high office to serve their own country. It is here I have to apologise to Christer for the promised sixty second interview to the membership detailing his many achievements. Owing to the pressure of time this as had to be held over to the autumn issue. It is in no particular order I include Captain John Wills RN rtd for a remarkable visit to the past, so much so before Nelson joined the navy at the tender age of 12years John joined a remarkable school or it seems now a naval academy at the age of a little more than eight years. Stroud School founded in Highwood House was the home built by Nelson’s nephew, Rear Admiral William Benjamin Suckling near Romsey, Hampshire. Other articles including Ride the Trafalgar Way and a delightful piece from Willard Dunlap A Joyful Story from the North American Station I believe we have again achieved a fine edition of The Kedge Anchor. Due to the high costs of all the Club’s publications which to say the least seems so unlikely despite the news of the Libor Grant it was decided by council to return to a full in-house publication. There are very strict rules in place over the way the monies are spent from the fund. Combined with a detailed first approach to the Chancellors' Office meant extra funding for publications was ruled out. However the Club hopes it can reapply for a lesser amount after a period of three years. I wish to thank AMA DataSet Limited for their valued work over the last seven issues in particular Simon Mather and Christine Beatty. They set the standard for the issue we see today. It is hoped the Club can continue using their vast expertise within the publishing field. Kenneth Flemming.
www.1805club.orgRkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTYyMzU=