THE KEDGE ANCHOR AUTUMN 2023 3 EDITORIAL Here is a glimpse of how it works at the KA: imagine, if you will, that your Editor is a rational and nimble ape, swinging by liana from tree to tree above it all. He invites copy, selects it, checks it, and occasionally produces it. But snapping at his heels, are a pack of predators waiting to pounce on his errors. Often a matter of opinion, so he can decide to thump his chest and ignore them. But they are the kings of the beasts, with the additional bene�it of education, so to keep the pack onside, as it were, he usually allows them their little (sometimes big) triumphs. Therefore, he now gives thanks to his sub-editor, his proof-reader and his partner (an ex-English language teacher) for their improvements. Any mistakes that survived the pack’s avidity are probably from when the Editor thumped his chest inappropriately – and lost grip of his liana! All faithful readers of TD will, by now, have heard plenty about the ‘Cornwallis Weekend’, but for all you others, I cannot pass the opportunity of saying thank you to everyone who made it such a great event. For me, personally, it was a chance to meet lots of people that I wanted to meet, often for the �irst time, and others whom I did not know I wanted to meet, but was glad to have done so. If you are attending this year’s Trafalgar Night Dinner, at the HMS NELSON Wardroom, and we have not yet met, please introduce yourself. I am usually reasonably tame, when I am not swinging from a tree. Mention has been made about the (usual) lack of references in The Kedge Anchor. Like its Editor, KA is neither scholarly nor academic, and is intended to be a relaxing read for Club members, who have plenty of opportunities for serious reading elsewhere. KA’s roots are from the Club newsletter, which has now been replaced by The 1805 Dispatches (TD). So, please just enjoy! For your enjoyment in this edition of KA we have news of our CIO status and a new fund-raising initiative; the second part of Hervé Savoie’s history of the French Navy; instruction on the use of a sextant; Christer Hägg’s brief biog., with some examples of his work; a trip to Guernsey; a new potential hero for you: Sir Nesbit Willoughby; The Revd Sir Alexander Scott; and all the usual regulars: New Members; Everybody Knows That; Crossword, etc., and, of course ‘The Nile’ is mentioned occasionally. Cover picture: Bell Rock Lighthouse JMW Turner (1775-1851), 1819. Watercolour and gouache with scratching out on paper, 30.60 x 45.50 cm. Collection: National Galleries of Scotland (In storage) SECRETARY’S REPORT By Stephen Howarth MA (with Distinction), FRHistS, FRGS, Cert. Ed. (Oxon) Hon. Secretary, The 1805 Club Please note the next edition is due in Spring 2024. The deadline for copy will be 21 March 2024. Please submit your ideas to the Editor as soon as you can,and actual contributions before the copy deadline whenever possible. On Saturday 17 June 2023, the Club’s AGM took place in the Princess Royal Gallery of the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth, marking the third major organisational development in the Club’s life so far. The �irst was of course its creation, which took place by informal agreement in the autumn of 1990 and was formalised on Trafalgar Day that year: 21 October 1990, the Club’s of�icial birth date. The second major organisational development came on 26 September 1998 at an Extraordinary General Meeting in HMS BELFAST, when the large number of members present voted unanimously for the Club to become a public charity. Our third major organisational development, agreed by all members present and those voting by proxy, has made the Club into a charitable incorporated organisation, or CIO. This structure did not exist in 1998. If it had, we would have adopted it then. The only comparable arrangement would have been to have taken on charitable status (as we did, and which crucially enabled us to apply for grants that were only available to legally public bodies) and to have created a limited company as well. This, however, would have demanded annual reports to Companies House as well as to the Charity Commissioners, signi�icantly increasing our voluntary workload. The original Committee of 1990 became the Council in 1998, and is now the Board of Trustees. Council still exists, but in a more amorphous form than hitherto. As well as the Trustees, its members are individuals who give the Club their time and energy, their knowledge and connections, their ideas and skills through focused committees that report formally to the decision-making Trustees. Please, if you have ideas and believe you could help with the running of the Club – let us know! Events since this time last year began with a successful Trafalgar Night Dinner 2022 in a happy return to HMS NELSON WARDROOM, Portsmouth. After the long hiatus of Covid-19 it was a great pleasure to have over a hundred members and guests together again, and we were privileged to have Vice Admiral Martin Connell, Second Sea Lord, and his wife as our Guests of Honour. In February 2023, US East Coast members enjoyed a dinner in Alexandria, Virginia, commemorating the Battle of Cape St Vincent, and on 16 June 2023 – the day before the AGM – a wonderful event took place in HM Naval Dockyard, Portsmouth, with the unveiling of our memorial (jointly developed with the Milford-on-Sea Historical Record Society) to Admiral Sir William Cornwallis. It was no coincidence but a happy development that our AGM was chaired by member Richard Cornwallis. The Cornwallis memorial is a highly valuable contribution to our Commemorative Projects and should have been followed in the autumn by a major presentation in Nevis, where Horatio Nelson married Fanny Nisbet. Our sister organisation the Nevis Historical and Conservation Society was scheduled to receive a new Nelson uniform and hat, together with a climate-controlled display cabinet, AND the fully restored Register containing the record of the wedding. Alas, our expert conservator at the Borthwick Institute, University of York, suffered a serious accident. This Continued on page 5
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