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Letters
Greetings from the 1805 Club Greetings from the 1805 Club Dear Mac, Having just come across your website while searching for some information, I have to tell you how very impressed I was with it ! I am Membership Secretary of the 1805 Club here in Britain (but world membership) and it is so thrilling when we find someone as dedicated and knowledgeable as yourself, and moreover We are a registered charity with some five hundred members, and our main work is original maritime research (with emphasis on Nelson and the Georgian sailing navy) and conservation of all memorials associated with that period. For 2005 we identified and undertook restoration projects on the graves of the Trafalgar captains, and are now doing the same for the captains at the Nile and Copenhagen. The graves of Nelson's family are included, and we erected the only memorial to Emma Lady Hamilton in Calais, where she died. Most recently, we celebrated a 'Homage to All Heroes' weekend at Great Yarmouth, to honour the dead on both sides of the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801. The Danish Naval Attaché attended, and a plaque was unveiled in memory of the fallen. We take our work very seriously, but are also a happy and friendly Club. Our Vice-President, Tom Pocock the great Nelson writer, died last week, and we shall miss him greatly. Once again, my warmest congratulations for a splendid website, beautifully put together and a huge achievement. With kindest regards,
My thanks for your very flattering mail, never thought that at age 85 I would ever blush again, but you proved me wrong. For AHOY, I do the research and writing, but for the web site and how it presents to all who may log on, I am indebted to Terry Kearns my web master in Atlanta Georgia, without him the site would not exist let alone prosper. I have just returned from a meeting at the Williamstown Naval Dockyard in the main offices of Tenex, ship builders there, the building is called Nelson House, the main meeting room, where we met, the Nelson Room, a big feature there is a figure of our famed Admiral in full uniform with decorations and his famous telescope, he stands beneath a Naval Crown. My contact there is off to Europe on Monday next, away three weeks, but on his return, has promised to E-Mail me a photo of Lord Nelson, that if you are interested I will pass on to you Linda. Denise and I are off to Munich on May 22, a 7 day trip down the Rhine and Danube, and then 4 days in Budapest, back home about June 14. Unfortunately this trip will not bring us to your homeland. Again, sincere thanks for your encouraging message, that type of response to AHOY spurs me on to continue to try and bring our Naval History and its heritage to a wider audience. We will never see the likes of Lord Nelson in command at sea ever again. Very best wishes to you, your Council and members. Mac.
Thank you for your delightful reply ! I hope by now that all the Council members of the Club will have logged on to your site - they will be most impressed, and many of them do not impress easily. We also have many descendants of naval officers of that period. I envy your trip down the Danube - I have done it, and can highly recommend it. May I also say that my greatest wish is to live long and be able to continue to 'serve Nelson' in a practical way as long as I possibly can - I too want to be eighty five and still running the Membership of the 1805 Club ! You have no idea how encouraged I feel to hear of your age, in view of the wonderful things you have done, are doing, and will go on doing ! I wish you all the very best for the future, and ever-increasing success to your website. And yes please, images of Nelson are always welcome at this e-mail address ! Thank you for that. Again, my sincerest and best wishes to you,
I am back from our European visit and as promised, here is the photo of the Lord Nelson display from the " Nelson Room" at the Tenex headquarters Nelson House ( they are shipbuilders ) at Williamstown, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
I am indebted to Les Bailey, one of their senior staff for these photographs. Trust all is well with the 1805 Club. Kindest regards,
Delighted to receive the photo of the Nelson figure - one that we certainly would never have seen in the ordinary way ! Hope your European trip was wonderful and that you got everything Yes, all is well here, and we have just heard that the Club is to take an active part in the annual Trafalgar Day service at Nelson's tomb in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral, along with the First Sea Lord and the Dean of St Paul's, so we feel very honoured and recognized ! Awful to wish the summer away, but obviously we are very much looking forward to this privilege ! Our chairman will read out Nelson's honours, which he also did at our re-enactment of Nelson's funeral service (January 2006) - he said you could really feel Nelson's presence in the crypt and that for him it was the best memory of all the Trafalgar 200 celebrations. We are also busy planning a celebration of the 150th anniversary of Nelson's birth next year, which will include a service of thanksgiving at his father's own church in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk. The village has changed very little since Nelson's time, except that the tiny pub has of course since been renamed the Lord Nelson ! Very best wishes as always, a great pleasure to hear from you. Linda |
