2 THE VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE By Bill White, Chairman, The 1805 Club KEDGE ANCHOR Issue 53 First, I can report that work of the Governance Committee set up by our late Chairman, Peter Warwick, is coming to fruition, in that good progress is being made in the revision of the Constitution of Club. We will be converting the Club from a standard charity to be a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (or CIO), a form of Charity that has only recently been developed by the Charity Commission. It is more suited for charities that need to handle significant funds, as we have been doing after the receipt of the LIBOR grant. We will be following, very largely, a Constitutional format developed by the Charity Commission. This will avoid the need for complex negotiations, but might require a few changes to our administrative procedures. At the same time, we are drafting revised objectives for the Club. The present objectives date from foundation of the Club in 1990, and do not properly match our current activities. Both the new Constitution and the revised objectives will be put, as separate items, on the Agenda for the AGM for formal approval by the membership. The intention is then first to settle the new Constitution with the Charity Commission with the existing objectives. This should be achievable with little delay. We will then negotiate with them the proposed changes to the new Objectives. The new Constitution will then be issued and will include the new objectives as approved by the Charity Commission. I have to thank Geraint Day (as Chairman of the Governance Subcommittee), Mark West, Nick Ridge and Paul Kloss for their considerable efforts that should bring this matter to a conclusion during the present year. I would now like to revert to a matter I raised in my Observations in the last issue of The Kedge Anchor. In the years preceding the bicentenary of Trafalgar in 2005 the Club was involved with many other groups in developing events to commemorate the bicentenary of the battle. At that time, I was Vice Chairman of the Club and also Chairman of the New Trafalgar Dispatch project which set up the Trafalgar Way. There was at that time great concern on the issue of “sea blindness” in respect of the achievements of both the Royal Navy and the Merchant Navy and the significance of their functions in regard to national security and prosperity. However, it now seems that, although the events of 2005 raised the Navy’s profile at the time, sea blindness was not adequately countered in the long term, and the position is little different today compared with that in 2005. But, for some 400 years, our national prosperity has been rooted in Britain’s success as a trading nation. As we are also an island nation, this has necessitated the development of a merchant fleet to facilitate our international trade. But this could have not succeeded without the evolution of the Royal Navy as a military force having as part of its function to secure the sea lanes and act in a protective role for the merchant service. I would like to see the National Curriculum, in respect of history, cover the evolution of our Parliamentary system, the evolution of our national legal system, the foundation of modern science by Isaac Newton and his associates, and the Industrial Revolution that flowed from the application of Newtonian science. Together, these developments facilitated a massive increase in our international trade. And they were not only of national significance. The political, legal and scientific principles they embodied provided models for many other countries and remain today of international importance. It is only against an understanding of the broad historical background that the significant role of the Royal Navy, expounded by naval historians, can be properly understood. The year since the sad loss of our former Chairman, Peter Warwick, has been one of complex activity, which is indeed still progressing. The Constitutional changes referred to above have been only one of several administrative matters we have had to address. These have also had the effect of reducing the time and resource available to organise events during the year. I would mention just two. The weekend in July to commemorate Admiral Cornwallis at Milford on Sea was a great success and was attended by both Earl Howe, whose ancestor the first Earl Howe was the Admiral who defeated the French Fleet at the battle of the Glorious First of June. And the visit to the Isle of Man organised by “Our Man in Man” Frank Cowin was also very rewarding. The island has strong naval links and include Captain Quilliam, the First Lieutenant in HMS Victory at Trafalgar and Captain Bligh of the Bounty, both of whom came from the island. You will have seen Mark West’s article about the trip in the last Kedge Anchor.
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