Festival planned to celebrate Lord Collingwood

Jan 22 2010 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

Treasure hoard on show

AMONG the items in the Newcastle Discovery Museum exhibition which have been loaned by Collingwood’s descendants is a sword presented to him immediately after the Battle of Trafalgar.

It was handed over as the sword of the defeated Spanish admiral.

Other items from the family include Collingwood’s day telescope and a miniature painting of his wife, Sarah, which he would have taken to sea.

A remarkable discovery as the exhibition was being put together was a hitherto unknown letter written by Collingwood.

It was discovered among prints of Collingwood which had been produced after his death and which have been kept in storage.

The letter, written from the 80-gun warship Ocean, is to a Captain Boyles and includes the passage: "I have been sadly worried my dear Boyles by those flying Frenchmen – and am mortified exceedingly that they should escape from the search I made with much anxiety – but I shall always hope the time is not very distant that will give them to my embrace ."

Several of Collingwood’s letters home are also included and his early logs from voyages on the 28-gun frigate Liverpool to the Mediterranean and the 50-gun Portland to the West Indies.

They include records of punishments and small obituaries for crewmen who have died.

In one letter, dated November, he says that he has not set foot on land in that year.

Ian Whitehead, keeper of maritime history at Tyne Wear Museums who has organised the exhibition, said: "He did that year in, year out over many years. You can see his huge sense of duty which eventually wore him out. Collingwood was a hero, but I think the more complex, wider aspects of his character have been under-played.

"He was a man of intellect, with a strong sense of morality and the irony was that what he liked best was his family and his garden at Morpeth."

Also on show is the silver kettle which Newcastle Corporation presented to Collingwood after the victory a Trafalgar and is now in the Tyne Wear Museums collection.

In a letter to his wife in 1806, Collingwood writes: "I am much obliged to the corporation of Newcastle for every mark which they give of their esteem and approbation of my service: but where shall we find a place in our small house for all those vases and epergnes?

"A kind letter from them would have gratified me as much, and have been less trouble."

Event highlights

THE main focus of the festival will be the weekend of March 6-7.

Collingwood died on March 7, 1810, on board his ship Ville de Paris after leaving Port Mahon in Menorca.

The March weekend will see a civic dinner in Newcastle, a visit by the 1805 Club which celebrates the Georgian navy, and a memorial service in St Nicholas Cathedral.

There will also be a military and naval parade through the city with a visit by the First Sea Lord, and a gun salute from the Collingwood Monument at Tynemouth to which the warship HMS Cumberland will reply as she enters the Tyne.

On March 5 a Northumbrian concert will be held as part of the festival at Morpeth Town Hall with a Collingwood theme.

There will also be Collingwood-related events as part of the Morpeth Gathering in April.

Links are being made with a commemorative event in Menorca from March 27-30, and with Collingwood in Ontario in Canada and in New Zealand.

In July there will be the unveiling of a memorial at Sunderland’s Trafalgar Square aged seaman’s homes to the 68 men from Wearside who fought at Trafalgar.

Newcastle Royal Grammar School, where Collingwood was a pupil, will stage a special event in July and in June 18th Century dinners will take place at Trinity House in Newcastle as part of the Eat festival.

There will also be tie-ins with the Hartlepool Tall Ships’ event and a Folkworks concert at The Sage Gateshead in October – a month which will also see a visit from the Nelson Society.

Collingwood's career began at age of 12

ADMIRAL Collingwood was born in 1748 on Side between the Black Gate and St Nicholas Church in Newcastle.

When he was eight Britain declared war against France.

In 1761 at the age of 12 Collingwood entered the navy aboard the 28-gun frigate Shannon.

Between 1761-1773 he served on at least five ships – Shannon, the frigates Gibraltar and Liverpool, the 70-gun Lennox and 50-gun Portland.

In the Liverpool he made the first of many visits to Port Mahon on the south east coast of Menorca, a British possession for much of the 18th Century.

Collingwood was 26 when he sailed in the 50-gun Preston for Boston in 1774 to support the British army in the American War of Independence.

At the age of 42 he married Sarah Blackett, daughter of the Mayor of Newcastle.

They married in 1791 at St Nicholas Church and lived at Morpeth.

Within two years they had daughters Sarah and Mary Patience.