Chairmans dispatch | The 1805 Club

Toppling our heroes

Issue number: 48 – Autumn 2017 (KA 48)

When I sit down to write my Dispatch I look for inspiration not from the past but from the present in order to remind ourselves of the Club’s relevance today. Weeks can pass before the catalyst presents itself and I become anxious that it may not be there. Then, as so often happens, it comes out of the blue. This time from the terrible riots in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA, which also reminded me of the importance of our North American membership.

Fleetingly, I wondered whether any of Horatio Nelson’s statues could ever go the way of Robert E Lee’s in Charlottesville and dismissed the idea. After all the Admiral has survived over 200 years, driven off all the revisionist historians and remains a fundamental icon of British national identity, inspirational leadership, duty – and humanity. He had genius and flaws. He was the ‘superman with everyone’s weaknesses’, as the late Tom Pocock put it.

To read the full Chairman’s Dispatch please download the PDF here.

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Regular updates from The 1805 Club’s Chairman. See the archive.
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