BACKGROUND

Admiral Lord Collingwood was without doubt, the 'greatest naval seaman and tactician ever', according to his many fans throughout the world.  He was educated at the Roayl Grammar School in Newcastle, and then went on to find fame - if not fortune - with the Royal Navy. 

On the morning of the Battle of Trafalgar on the 21st October 1805, Collingwood quietly and calmly said to his company; "Now then gentlemen, let us do something today which the world may talk of hereafter."

His brilliance and tenacity at the Battle of Trafalgar proved itself when at 12 noon, he gave the order to his guunners on the Royal Sovereign, the order to open fire a broadside which disabled 400 crew and 14 guns on the Santa Ana, immediately reducing her firepower. The Santa-Ana remained duelling with the Royal Sovereign until at 1415, the Admiral Alava was so badly wounded and his crew so massively depleted, that the Santa-Ana had little choice but to surrender. The Royal Sovereign was, by now almost immobilised and she played no further part in the fighting.

After the death of Nelson, apart from a couple of short visits home, Collingwood was kept away from his beloved Northumberland and England for 'political reasons', so that his fame and courage would not be allowed to upstage Nelson - especially after Nelsons heroic death in battle!   Collingwood died of cancer on board the Ville de Paris, off Port Mahon, on 7 March 1810, whilst on his way home.  He is buried next to Nelson in St Paul's Cathedral, London.