The flag flown from HMS Royal Sovereign on the Battle of Trafalgar has been saved for the nation by the North East Museums. One in all solely three surviving British flags from the epic 1805 battle between the English and Napoleonic navies, it bought at public sale to a overseas purchaser final yr. The UK’s Minister of Tradition positioned a brief export bar on the flag to stop it leaving the nation and giving native establishments the prospect to amass it.
Because of donations from organizations, together with £400,000 from the Nationwide Heritage Memorial Fund, North East Museums was capable of increase the acquisition worth of £450,000 ($600,000) and safe this iconic emblem of Britain. They’re now elevating funds to create a everlasting customized show for this big flag on the Discovery Museum in Newcastle.
The flag has a selected connection to northeastern England. It is usually generally known as the Collingwood Trafalgar flag after Vice Admiral Collingwood, commander of HMS Royal Sovereign and Newcastle upon Tyne native. He was simply 13 years outdated when he enlisted within the British navy in 1761, and labored his method up the ranks, earing the rank of vice-admiral and serving as second in control of the British Fleet underneath Admiral Horatio Nelson on the Battle of Trafalgar.
Not solely was Collingwood a neighborhood lad, however a lot of his crew was too. They have been nicknamed the “Tars of the Tyne” as a result of so lots of them got here from the Tyne and Put on county of northeastern England. Moreover, they weren’t simply combating underneath this flag, they really made it too. It’s the solely one of many three surviving Trafalgar flags that was handmade by the crew of the ship whose foremast it flew from.
The Union Flag will type the centrepiece of a brand new everlasting show at Discovery Museum, Newcastle, that may have fun an necessary regional and nationwide determine and a major second in British historical past.
Will probably be situated in a brand new part of the museum’s standard Story of the Tyne gallery, which showcases an in depth maritime assortment, overlaying Tyneside’s shipbuilding trade, improvements in maritime know-how, and among the finest ship mannequin collections within the nation.
The show may even inform the story of the native males who served in Nelson’s navy – there have been over 500 ‘Geordie’ sailors on the Battle of Trafalgar.
