"I am set up for a conjurer!" exclaimed Admiral Lord Nelson after a meeting with Prime Minister William Pitt in September 1805 confirming him Commander in Chief of his Majesty's ships and vessels in the Mediterranean. Such was his fame, fighting spirit and winning reputation, he was regarded as the saviour of the country. The one man who everyone thought was the real hope for stopping Napoleon's invasion of England. A legend in his own lifetime he had become the icon for the wooden walls of the Royal Navy that protected the country.
Last month, like so many October's before, we witnessed the burnishing of this iconic status as wreaths were laid on the quarterdeck of Nelson's flagship HMS VICTORY, at the Nelson statue in Old Portsmouth, the Collingwood Monument at Tynemouth, and at Nelson's tomb in St Paul's Cathedral.