By Sue Pudduck

It was a dark and stormy night when Kingwear Historians held their last talk of 2024.

Unlike the weather conditions outside, the speaker, Ian Fraser, described the gentle breeze and flat seas at the start of the Battle of Trafalgar.

The lack of wind meant the ships lost much of their mobility and the French and English war ships bumped together allowing boarding parties and also allowing snipers to take close aim at the sailors on deck.

It was one of these shots that brought down Nelson.

Ian had based his talk on the painting by AW Devis which shows Nelson in his last hours of life being tended by his officers and the ship’s doctors.

Ian’s research had then followed the lives and careers of the 11 men surrounding Nelson’s death bed.

Several of them had gone on to hold prominent positions in English public life.

What amazed the Kingswear audience was the likenesses that the painter had managed to capture in the dark and cramped conditions of the hospital deck and how, in later life, other portraits of the same men by different artists showed how life-like Devis’s painting had been.

The audience found this investigation into the later lives of the officers a fascinating approach which combined history and art.

The next Kingswear Historians meeting is on Monday January 13 in the Village Hall when a local resident, Brian Longman will give a detailed talk on Kingswear drawing on the census from 1841-1911 and telling the story of the development of the village and the characters that lived there. Entry £5.

Kingswear Historians organise talks and sometimes visits.

To find out more you can visit their website at: https://kingswearhistorians.com/ where you can also post comments or e-mail them