x The President’s Dispatch Admiral Sir Jonathon Band When one completes one’s active service in the forces one is normally unclear how much contact one will want, have, or indeed need, with your service. Certainly, as a former head of the Royal Navy, I knew and indeed expected to remain engaged, but the question was to what extent? I was always hoping to become Chairman of the Royal Naval Museum, living in Southsea as I do and having been a Friend of the Museum for years. But, as some of you know, the Navy Board, of which I was a Member, decided that the Service’s approach to its heritage was far too fragmented and needed to raise its game. The decision to create the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) was made in 2007 and it was formally established in 2009. I was hugely pleased to become its Chairman in 2010. It has been a busy period as the Museum completed the legal integration of the Service Museums and the Royal Naval Museum, gave the final green light to the Alliance Restoration Project at the Submarine Museum, progressed the preparation phase of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Gallery Project in Portsmouth and set about assessing how we might save the former HMS Caroline, the only remaining First World War vintage ship in the world. Meanwhile, a whole raft of other initiatives are underway in the Historic Dockyard, at the various museum sites, and nationally as we expand our affiliates programme. I mention all this about the NMRN because we in The 1805 Club should be duly supportive of this campaign to promote naval heritage in the round. It benefits us and, indeed, underpins our vital work with respect to the Georgian sailing navy. Collectively all of us in the naval family, as we take our individual agendas forward, should be aware of what others are doing. This way we can support each other and ensure that the effectiveness of the whole campaign to promote and salute naval heritage is more than the sum of its parts. To dwell on our part of this campaign, I must say I am really encouraged by the effort made and the effect being achieved. It is always potentially divisive
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