The 1805 Club was founded in 1990 to accomplish three objectives. To assist in the preservation of monuments and memorials relating to Vice- Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson and seafarers of the Georgian era. To promote research into the Royal Navy of the Georgian period, and especially of Vice Admiral Lord Nelson. To organize cultural and historical events.
1805 originates from the year of the Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805. The Club's chairman since 2021 is Captain John A Rodgaard USN (Ret). The 1805 Club is a charity registered in England and Wales: No. 1201272.
The club restored the imposing churchyard memorial of Admiral Home Popham at St Michael and All Angels Church, Sunninghill, Berkshire, in 1999.[1] In the same year it restored the tomb of Admiral Sir Sidney Smith in Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris.[2]
In 2006 it was reported that the 1805 club restored the grave of Capt Edward Berry, buried at St Swithin's Church in Walcot as part of their Trafalgar Captains' Memorial Project.[3]
In 2008, it was reported that the 1805 club restored the grave of Capt John Richards Lapenotière RN, at Menheniot Parish Church near Liskeard. The club also recorded the graves of all the British commanding officers at Trafalgar and raised funds to repair seven that were found to be in poor condition. The 1805 club documented the graves in their book, The Trafalgar Captains: Their Lives and Memorials.[4]
According to The Times, the club conducted a 200th anniversary memorial service at the tomb of Lord Nelson. Senior members of the Royal Navy, the Sea Cadets and HMS Victory's Cutter Crew were in attendance. The club vice-president, Mrs Anna Tribe, a 3rd great-granddaughter of Lord Nelson and Lady Emma Hamilton, laid a wreath at Nelson's tomb during the service.[5]
The 1805 Club is also the official custodian of The Trafalgar Way from Falmouth to the Old Admiralty in London. In 2020 the Club registered the trademark "The Trafalgar Way" to assert its custodianship and record the 'official' route today as determined from historic records and maps.[6]
The 1805 Club maintains a website with historical information about the Royal Navy and other state and merchant navies during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and concentrating on Lord Nelson and his fellow seamen, including a list of over seventy links to other Naval research databases.
The 1805 Club also publishes the following:
The 1805 Club has also published monographs, including:
Monuments and memorials to Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson