KEDGE ANCHOR Issue 54 THE VIEWFROMTHE BRIDGE By Bill White, Chairman, The 1805 Club

Members will appreciate that there is "Britons never never shall be not much to report. Most, if not all, slaves". events both here and in the To clear up the confusion, it will United States and elsewhere have be helpful to look at how the song and been cancelled, so it is a matter of its music came to be written and how ‘holding the fort’ until relief (or a it was subsequently modi�ied into the vaccine) arrives. But there are one or form used today. two matters to mention... In 1730s, the 65-page text of Firstly, due to some fraudulent , a (or masquerade) by activity by some other organisations James Thomson (1700-1748) and registered as charities, the Charity David Mallet (?1705-1765), was set to Commission has tightened up on its music by Thomas Arne (1710-1778). procedures and it has become more bureaucratic It was described as a “patriotic masque”. The �irst and, as a result, dealing with the Commission has production of the masque was performed for become more complex. We have therefore Prince Frederick at the Prince of Wales’ residence appointed Nicholas Ridge as Treasurer, a at in 1740 and opened on Drury Lane the member who is a Chartered Accountant, to handle following year.Rule, Britannia constitutes the six- matters involving the Commission. He will work stanza �inale to the masque on pages 64 and 65. with Lindy Mackie, who will continue as Club The text can be read (but not copied) at Accountant and bookkeeper. “openlibrary.org,books/OL7198057M”. The musical score was republished by Stainer and I was in Portsmouth on September 16th with Bell in 1981. The metre of the version of the song our President, Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, visiting in current use differs slightly from the 1740 St Anne's Church, in HM Dockyard. St Anne’s is a version and the music has been amended Naval Church dating from the mid 1700's and is accordingly. under the aegis of the Chaplain of the Fleet. The The subject of the masque is the resistance to Revd Adam Gay, the Chaplain of the church, the Viking invasions of Britain and the �inal defeat received us and we were accompanied by Stephen of the Vikings in the late 9th Century by Alfred the Tregidgo, Christopher Hobby and Sheila White. Great (849?-899), King of Wessex and later of the Our concern was to consider the material, text Anglo Saxons. The Vikings were slavers and this and appropriate location within the church for a lends relevance to the declaration quoted in the plaque to commemorate Admiral Sir William �irst paragraph above. During the 1730s Alfred Cornwallis, who had held the Portsmouth was often represented, in Patriot party opposition Command. More signi�icantly, he commanded the writings, as a law-giver hero who exempli�ied British Fleet in maintaining the blockade of Brest Saxon liberty and Christian benevolence (in during the Napoleonic Wars for about two to three contrast to the then current prime minster Robert years. During this period the �leet was contin- Walpole (1676-1745)). ually at sea. Captain A T Mahan USN, the well- However in the 1740s, the UK was known US naval historian, declared this to be one also suffering from the depredations of Moroccan of the greatest feats in naval history. We hope that and Algerian slavers operating in the Atlantic. a suitable memorial plaque can be mounted prom- Many slaves were being taken from the crews of inently within the church in 2021. British ships and the slavers were also raiding On a different subject, the Secretary recently coastal communities in Britain and Ireland. So at received a report concerning the origins of the that time the song also had contemporary song ‘Rule, Britannia’, containing misconceptions relevance. about the reference to slavery in the declaration in At an appropriate time, a new production of the famous song that: Alfred might be contemplated under the aegis of the Club.

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