viii The Chairman’s Dispatch Peter Warwick As Nelson’s coffin was lowered into the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral on 9 January 1806, Sir Isaac Heard, Garter Knight at Arms, offered an unscripted tribute: ‘The Hero, who in the moment of Victory, fell covered with Immortal glory. Let us trust that he is now raised to a bliss ineffable and a most glorious immortality’. Exactly two hundred years later, The 1805 Club’s special service and ‘funeral’evensong at St Paul’s well captured the spirit of these words. For many it was the most moving of all the Trafalgar Bicentenary events. It was certainly the one that will stay vivid in my mind forever. After more than ten years of celebrating the bicentenaries of Nelson’s achievements we were on the brink of an incredible threshold. There was a powerful sense of something unique, a sense of awe, and a true sense of loss. Not only were we all a part of Nelson’s ‘most glorious immortality’, we were also among those privileged and destined to be its custodians. The occasion undoubtedly enhanced the Club’s prestige and even the Cathedral, so used to great state occasions, was taken aback by the power of the service. While there was a sense of closure there was also a sense of aspiration and optimism about the future for our Club. The poignancy of this watershed was brought home to us in March with the death of our cherished President, Lily Lambert McCarthy CBE. Lily had a lifelong devotion to ‘The Immortal Memory’and a consuming interest in naval history, and had been President from the foundation of the Club in 1989. She will probably be best remembered for her generous donation to the Royal Naval Museum of one of the finest collections of Nelson artefacts in private hands, but she was also a strong Anglophile and at the outbreak of war in 1939 did all she could in America to support Britain. We shall remember her for her kindness, enthusiasm, and for the close interest she always took in the activities of the Club. Lily recognised that neither our charitable work nor the great interest in Nelson would come to an abrupt end just because the bicentenaries of Trafalgar and his death had passed. At such a moment, it is worth reminding ourselves that no other organisation exists to conserve the monuments and memorials of the Georgian sailing navy. Memorials are the very stuff of history- a constant and touching reminder of the bravery, adventures, and achievements that helped both to shape the world and to form our understanding of it. John Wilson Croker could have written the anthem for this with his lines from ‘Songs of Trafalgar’: Thither shall youthful heroes climb, The Nelsons of an aftertime,
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