This article is about 2 years old but I found it of great interest while trolling the Internet for research today.
A rare Royal Naval uniform worn by a British survivor of the Battle of Trafalgar has been unearthed after spending decades in the attic of one of the sailor’s descendants.
William Hicks became famous for his gripping account of Trafalgar which told how, as a 17-year-old midshipman on HMS Conqueror, he helped British forces crush France and Spain in 1805 to end the threat of an invasion by Napoleon.
Now a uniform worn by Hicks several years later when he reached the rank of lieutenant has been unearthed in a plastic bag in an attic, after being handed down through his family for 200 years.
It went on display today at the National Maritime Museum in London on the anniversary of the battle off the Spanish coast
Here’s a picture of the uniform. Follow the link above for more details of this amazing story!
I’m fascinated by this extract as I’m attempting to trace an ancestor of mine too, who is Lieutenant William Vosper and who passed his Lieutenants exam on 6th April 1796
He was active in the Mediterranean area too around this time but eventually ended up in the Naval Dept at GH (Greenwich Hospital School)
I have a photo of an oil painting of Lieutenant William Vosper but his uniform is not the same as Lieutenant William Hicks and I’m curious to understand what rank he was when the painting was commissioned …. any help would be greatly appreciated please?
Uniforms were not standardised, he was probably lieutenant same as Hicks.