Our talk for June was “Belgrave’s Midshipman Hornblower” given by Andy Warren, one of our Trustees. Andy’s talk featured the career of Captain Edward Aitchison, which was loosely similar to the fictional character Horatio Hornblower in the series of 11 books by C.S. Forester that followed the career of Hornblower from Midshipman to Captain. Although none of Edward’s family were from Belgrave, they did move to Belgrave and – apart from his youngest daughter – they are buried in St. Peter’s churchyard.
Probably the most interesting of the slides was that of the painting by George Chambers (see below) depicting the battle in progress, which showed not only the main ships in action but also depicted a small boat crewed by an officer and 10 men, mounted with a canon, that was tasked to get near to the Algerian ships and cause as much damage as possible; although it probably wasn’t depicting Edward himself, Edward was tasked with commanding one of the small boats and was wounded during the action.
Andy then gave a description of Edward’s wife, Louisa, who was Canadian, and his two daughters, Mary Rawlings and Margaret Quilliam, their life after Edward left the Navy, and their progress to Belgrave.
To finish, Andy gave a brief account of Captain John Quilliam’s life and career – from the Isle of Man, he rose from the rank of ordinary seaman in the Royal Navy to that of a full Captain. He was appointed by Nelson to the crew of HMS Victory, and was the First Lieutenant during the Battle of Trafalgar. He was elected to the Manx Parliament, and there is a statue to his memory at Castletown, on the Isle of Man.
An article about Edward’s naval career and John Quilliam can be found in the History page:
https://belgraveheritagetrust.org/history/edward-aitchison-rn/
