The Indefatigable's Midshipmen return to Portsmouth
Earlier this week nodbear and I were in Portsmouth to do our research seminar at the National Museum of the Royal Navy. We've presented several conference papers already on various aspects of our research but this was our first opportunity to present a broad overview of all nineteen* of the Indefatigable's young gentlemen. The start of our presentation was delayed slightly by a meeting of the Victory Committee which was taking place in the Princess Royal Gallery immediately prior to our talk. Our host at the museum remarked dryly that meetings full of retired admirals always over run as they can never agree anything :} However as the Museum had generously provided plenty of wine to entertain our audience, no one was complaining. Least of all us!
The seminar itself went well, we had a good turn out and had lots of interesting questions. Without a doubt the highlight of the evening was having three descendants of the Indefatigable's midshipmen present in the room. We were expecting two descendants of Thomas Groube, who had travelled all the way from New Zealand to Portsmouth, but we were delighted to unexpectedly have a descendant of John Thomson and the Pellew family present too.
Afterwards we had dinner at The Ship Anson and sat outside the dockyard gate watching the world going by on The Hard. It was perfect! And I think we took another small step forward in bringing the incredible lives of the midshipmen of HMS Indefatigable to a wider audience :)
* We didn't mention Horatio and Archie this time, but they were there in our hearts.
The seminar itself went well, we had a good turn out and had lots of interesting questions. Without a doubt the highlight of the evening was having three descendants of the Indefatigable's midshipmen present in the room. We were expecting two descendants of Thomas Groube, who had travelled all the way from New Zealand to Portsmouth, but we were delighted to unexpectedly have a descendant of John Thomson and the Pellew family present too.
Afterwards we had dinner at The Ship Anson and sat outside the dockyard gate watching the world going by on The Hard. It was perfect! And I think we took another small step forward in bringing the incredible lives of the midshipmen of HMS Indefatigable to a wider audience :)
* We didn't mention Horatio and Archie this time, but they were there in our hearts.