The E-Sylum:  Volume 11, Number 15, April 13, 2008, Article 24

RARE TRAFALGAR SURVIVOR'S MEDAL SOUGHT BY NELSON MUSEUM

[My first week in London was spent a stone's throw from
Trafalgar Square, where a towering column honors England's
greatest naval hero, Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson.  This week
a newspaper article describes a numismatic connection to Nelson,
a rare medal that showed up on eBay and is now being sought by
the Nelson Museum. -Editor]

It had languished in an attic until being put up for internet
auction in the hope of fetching a few hundred pounds.

But an unassuming looking medal turned out to be an extraordinarily
rare piece of Nelson history worth tens of thousands and now
a Norfolk museum is hoping to bring it home.

The Naval General Service Medal (NGSM) earned by Yarmouth hero
James Sharman, the man credited with carrying the fatally
ounded Nelson below deck during the battle of Trafalgar, has
surfaced - one of only three earned by the survivor.

Sharman is a particularly important figure to the museum as
he is one of only a few men whose heroic endeavours on HMS
Victory were recorded specifically.

Not only did he apparently tend to the dying Nelson but he
was so well regarded that he was chosen as the first 'keeper
of the pillar' by the Vice Admiral's best friend, Capt Masterman
Hardy, when the Nelson memorial was built in Yarmouth.

He was also the inspiration for the Charles Dickens character
Ham Peggotty in David Copperfield, forever immortalising a
Trafalgar survivor in one of the most famous pieces of English
literature.

To read the complete article, see:
Full Story

For more information on the Nelson Museum, see:
Nelson Museum

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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