Founder and Chair of the Emma Hamilton Society, Lily Style, dug into her family history to give us an account of her ancestor, Captain Edward Blanckley RN, who returned from the Anglo-Burmese War (1824–26) with an infant rescued from the rubble. The child was a Burmese prince who would never claim his throne. US Coast Guard operations specialist and historian Gerald Holland tells readers about Captain Nathaniel Portlock, who sailed with Cook and Bligh. Portlock participated in trading expeditions, interacting with Polynesians and the people of the First Nations of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. This issue also contains a variety of biographical sketches of Nelson’s contemporaries. Leading off this section, Professor Emeritus Barry Gough of Canada’s Wilfrid Laurier University writes about vice Admiral Sir Charles Saunders, naval hero of Quebec. Barry Jolly, a historian and former lieutenant commander in the Royal Navy, has contributed two biographies: one on Sir Harry Neale, Baronet GCB, a royal favourite, and one on Commander Walter Strickland, who served in the Royal Navy during a time of sweeping maritime technological advancements. dr Hilary L Rubinstein, of Melbourne, Australia, is the world’s leading biographer of Admiral Sir Philip durham. Her piece details the years in which this former Trafalgar captain became a controversial politician; a Member of Parliament representing the Wiltshire market town of devizes. durham, by the way, was a contemporary of Sir Harry Neale, who was also a Member of Parliament, representing Lymington. Mr Liam Gaul, a local historian of Wexford, Ireland, provides a biography of Commodore John Barry, who was born in Wexford and left Ireland at a young age, becoming the Father of the US Navy under President George Washington. Lastly, Captain Christer Hägg, a retired officer of Sweden’s navy, regales readers with the tale of Captain Johan Puke leading the Swedish fleet in a daring breakout from the Russian blockade at viborg, Sweden (now viborg, Finland) in 1790. Captain Hägg, a member of The 1805 Club and a maritime artist of note, includes two of his own paintings as illustrations – a treat! dr Gerald Stulc, a retired US Navy physician, writes about the history of military medicine. His article about artistic portrayals of Nelson’s illnesses and combat wounds was the featured piece of the 2020 Trafalgar Chronicle. In this issue, we have his physician’s analysis of the status of British naval surgeons during the French Wars 1793–1815. Mr Harold E ‘Pete’ Stark, of Annapolis, Maryland, discusses Nelson’s style as a leader, manager, mentor and friend, based on a letter he wrote to one of his captains, with whom he was not pleased. do you know how many of Nelson's ‘band of brothers’ missed the battle of Trafalgar? Naval history expert Andrew venn, of Portsmouth, England, documents the reasons why nine Royal Navy officers and one French naval EdITORS’ FOREWORd 7
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