Women serving in the RAN The subject of women serving in the armed forces has been contentious for centuries. Not long ago there were accusations that a USN female pilot had been pushed beyond her limits, with fatal consequences, after the crash of her F14 Tomcat following a possible single engine failure on finals approach […]
Nelson’s gold medals Lord Nelson’s full title, at the time of his death, was Vice Admiral of the White, The Right Honourable Horatio, Viscount Nelson, Knight of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath. He also was Baron Nelson, of the Nile and of Burnham Thorpe in the County of Norfolk; Baron Nelson, of the […]
VADM Pierre Charles Jean Baptiste Silvestre Villeneuve (1763-1806) Five years younger than Nelson, VADM Villeneuve commanded the combined French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar. He was born into a Valensoles, Provence, aristocratic family and joined the French Navy when he was 15. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he did not resign with the onset of […]
VADM Federico Carlos Gravina y Nápoli (1756-1806) Compared with Villeneuve, about whom much has been written, his junior Spanish counterpart at Trafalgar, VADM Gravina, remains a brave but shadowy figure. Gravina was born not Spanish, but into a noble Sicilian family. He first went to sea at age 12 and quickly developed a reputation as […]
VADM Francois Paul Brueys d’Aigalliers, Compte de Brueys (1753-1798) VADM de Brueys, commander of the French Fleet during Nelson’s Battle of the Nile in Aboukir Bay, was five years older than Nelson. Born in Uzes he joined the French Navy at age 13 and experienced rapid promotion during the revolutionary wars. He caught Napoleon’s eye […]
FADM Viscount St Vincent, John Jervis KGCB (1735-1823) Born in Meaford, Staffordshire, the son of a barrister, John Jervis was given £20 by his father when he joined the navy as an Able Seaman in the week of his 14th birthday, and not a penny of support after that. He rose to become an Admiral […]
VADM Collingwood VADM Collingwood was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne some eight years before Nelson. His father was a prominent Northumberland merchant who encouraged his son to join the Royal Navy at age 11, as a volunteer in HMS Shannon, commanded by young Cuthbert’s cousin, CAPT Richard Braithwaite. He swiftly gained promotion to Midshipman and by […]
ADML Samuel Viscount Hood (1724-1816) ADML Hood (painted by James Northcote about 1784.) Samuel Hood, the son of a vicar, joined the RN as a midshipman in 1741, at age 16, sharing duties with fellow MIDN George Rodney in HMS Ludlow. Qualifying as a Lieutenant in 1746, he saw active service in the North Sea […]
Royal Navy: the early years Sociologists tend to argue that it is not so much the individual who changes history. Instead, it is the struggles of the masses and random chance that selects any one of hundreds if not thousands of otherwise suitable individuals to be the figurehead for inevitable societal change. On the other […]
Nelson: A brief biography Nelson, wearing two of his three gold medals. (A third gold medal was awarded posthumously. Painting by John Hoppner.) Born on 29 September 1758, to the Reverend Edmund and Catherine Nelson of Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, Horatio Nelson rose from relative obscurity to become the nation’s outstanding naval officer and hero in […]
