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On 5th of November we in the UK celebrated the 400th Anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot which saw Guy Fawkes trying to blow up Parliament and King James I - typically this would include a large bonfire and a firework display. However, the Society at its November meeting on the same date held its celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar and the death of Nelson. The battle took place on 21st October 1805 between a British fleet under Vice-Admiral Viscount Horatio Nelson and a combined French and Spanish fleet under Vice-Admiral Villeneuve. Although the British won the day it was with the loss of Nelson who was shot by a French marksman on the Redoubtable as he stood on the quarterdeck of HMS Victory. John Daynes started proceedings by a giving a short talk and display on electronic mail following the recent introduction of such a service by the BFPO in conjunction with the Gibraltar postal authorities. This then lead onto a display of commemorative postal items from Gibraltar issued to commemorate the Anniversary, including items from the BFPO (he was out there at the time) and his display was made up of covers from both the Gibraltar BFPO and civil post offices (you will find some illustrations on our web site). He also showed items from the RN Gibraltar Squadron (made up of a number of small Archer class patrol craft). He finished with a display of UK commemorative covers and postmarks marking the event. Peter Burrows included commemorative covers which celebrated both the 167th and 175th Anniversaries. He also displayed various postcards which featured the cachet "Post in HMS Victory", including postcards of the Victory (again illustrations will be found on our website). John Leathes tacked the theme from a different angle - he showed covers and cards from submarines which carried the names of ships associated with the Battle of Trafalgar. These included Trafalgar, Dreadnought, Revenge and Swiftsure (the latter was a Post Office stamp card and also a stamp booklet which included the stamp issued in April 2001). He also included a couple of French items (first days covers and stamps) showing the French polaris submarine the La Redoutable. Hilary Shaw showed three souvenir postcards of Nelson, HMS Victory and a card showing an extract from the first letter written by Nelson following the loss of his right arm; all were postmarked in the UK during the early 1900's. Alistair Kennedy displayed a selection of Naval mail from the period 1792 to 1815 (and he apologised if members had seen some of the material before). This included correspondence from a George Price (alias George Green) a pressganged sailor who was placed aboard HM Hospital Ship Essex in 1803 (he fell ill after being taken). Then another letter when he was onboard HMS Speedy during the blockage of the French ports. He also showed a selection of commemorative covers from many of the warships of all nations which took part in the International Fleet Review on the Solent on 28 June 2005. Finally he laid out a miscellany of commemorative postcards of HMS Victory and commemorating the 200th Anniversary of Nelson and Trafalgar. |
