Nelson & His World

Well you never know what is going to turn up next!

Over a year ago I posted a photo of a model of the Battle of Trafalgar that used to be on display at the RUSI museum when it was in the Banqueting Hall on Whitehall. It was made by Thomas Deighton (model maker to the Prince Consort) and had been on display there since it was made in 1862.

I discovered that when the museum was closed in the 1960s it was sold to a private buyer (in 1966) but I couldn't find what happened to it after that.

Well blow me I just discovered that that buyer donated it to the Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth and it has been on display there ever since! :O It is no longer in the original case and it looks to me as if the ships may have been repositioned (?) which probably caused the confusion. But I have been assured by a curator that it is the same model. It has the reference RNM1966/22 so obviously the date ties in exactly.

It has Wylie's panorama of Trafalgar as a backdrop. Hopefully this is of interest.

This is how it looked in the RUSI museum.

And this is how it looks today. So it has now been on display at the NUSI museum and RNM for over 150 years!