Peter Hore served 38-years in the Royal Navy (retiring as a Captain) and 10-years in the film and TV industry, all the while developing a third career as a freelance journalist, biographer and obituarist. He is book-reviewer and op-ed and feature writer for Warships International Fleet Review with a monthly readership of 40,000, and the author more than a dozen works on naval history, strategy and biography. His latest book is His latest book is Bletchley Park’s Secret Source (2021), about the Wrens and wireless warfare in the Second World War. from Pen & Sword. He is editor of the Trafalgar Chronicle and can be found at peterghore@outlook.com.
At school in the 1950s we did proper history – with dates – from the Vikings to the Chartists, but my A-level GCEs were in pure and applied maths, physics, and chemistry. I joined the Navy in 1962 when in my third year at Dartmouth I was fortunate to have Ruddock F Mackay as my tutor (he seemed as old as Methuselah, but he was of course only a few years older than me). Nevertheless others portrayed Nelson as an authoritarian, establishment figure (everything was ‘good enough for Nelson’) – until I read Dudley Pope’s Great Gamble: Nelson at Copenhagen and I realised that Nelson with his mistress, his Norfolk whine, and ‘I see no signal’ was quite different. Then in the long nights at sea in HMS Jupiter I began my study afresh by reading Herodotus and Thucydides.
In mid-career I studied languages, qualifying as an interpreter in Spanish, Swedish and a linguist in Cantonese. Then as a mature student I studied for an MPhil at the Centre for Maritime Historical Studies at the University of Exeter under the excellent Mike Duffy.
I discovered that the blackest day in British and world history was 23 August 1911 when faced with the choice of whether to become involved in a continental war or to maintain the maritime strategy which had served her so well for several centuries, Britain made the wrong choice. On that infamous day the Navy presented its case poorly, and the lesson for me is that the navy and the nation needs less emphasis on its traditions (subjectivity) and better understanding of its history (objectivity) and to enunciate its ideas well.
There’s room in the world for subjectivity, and I’m a great reader of novels and a fan of Western movies, but I try to remember that these are largely fiction. As a writer of non-fiction, I believe in the necessity of studying original sources, and it distresses me when historians, even senior ones, sometimes plagiarise others works and – worse – repeat mistakes. I also believe that our studies are incomplete if we only use Anglo-phone sources.
With my background I was able to direct the Royal Navy’s applied research programme (1992-94) and its non-technical research programme – surely an unusual double. My last appointment (1997-2000) was as Head of Defence Studies during the British government’s Strategic Defence Review in 1997-98, the rewriting of British Maritime Strategy, and the launch of a new concept of operations, the Maritime Contribution to Joint Operations. As well as being responsible for researching defence doctrine and operational concepts, I was supposed to facilitate the exchange of views between the defence-academic community and the Ministry of Defence’s central and naval staffs – communities who frequently are deaf to each other. I also began to write articles and books which supported my role as Head of Defence Studies.
Then on a day in 2002 the Daily Telegraph invited me to join its team of freelance obituarists. In the years since then I have written more than 600 obituaries – some 600,000 words – on British, Commonwealth, and foreign sailors, marines, WRNS, yotties, naval architects, shipping magnates, in fact anyone with webbed feet including a few naval historians.
In my latest book, Nelson’s Band of Brothers, (there is no entry for Nelson) I have tried to show by their example, incident and anecdote what a varied, interested and talented group of men they were, and to suggest that with their understanding from the first principles of seamanship, tactics, strategy and grand strategy, several of them were capable of victory on the day.
I did not set out to become an historian, but if any of the above makes me one, well, so be it.
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Just to say how grateful I and I’m sure other members of my family are for your truly marvellous book on my uncle David Balme. It really is fascinating and shows how one should always try to remember to show the very greatest respect for David and many others who showed such immense bravery against huge odds. It really truly humbles me to discover such amazing experiences in a close relative. He was my father’s brother and Dad also must have been very brave as he joined the marines in about 1944/5 and coincidently was sent to Bletchley before going to Oxford in 1946. They sadly have now died but both had similar characteristics and values – very kind, generous men with a strong sense of modesty and fun with a wonderfully philosophical approach to life. I feel deeply privileged to have been related to them and miss them both very much. I believe that they were the 2 brothers who were probably most alike certainly in appearance anyway. So many thanks to you for such a meticulous and enthralling book.
HMS Pickle the smallest ship in Nelsons’ navy. Having read your wonderful book cover to cover it gave me the impetus to write a timeline for HMS Pickle berthed in Humber Dock Marina Hull. I am a guide on the vessel and thoroughly enjoy it being 65 and like you had a proper grounding in History and loved it. The timeline consists of short references taken from your book to all the events in the vessel known as Sting(then renamed Pickle) for as we both know the Admiralty were in a pickle regarding the Sting. Mal Nicholson’ vessel is based on the ‘Sting’, the period between 1800 and 1808 when she was dashed on rocks.
I have undertaken a lot of research to try and grab the guts of each incident so that I can upgrade my knowledge and try and pass it onto visitors to the vessel especially the youngsters who generally don’t even know who was Lord Nelson! I found a Wikipedia on HMS Pickle no idea who wrote it but it overlooks the very first Pickle which I believe from my researches that it was a hired armed cutter just as Sting was a Hired armed Schooner in the first instance until Seymour (rightly bought it) in my opinion and possibly yours too.
Have you any knowledge on Hired armed vessels at all and do you think I am correct in my assumption that the first Pickle which is very important to the entire story, was in fact a Hired armed cutter?
I would appreciate your views on this especially as several accounts written on the subject of Pickle appear to be at odds over events and seem to be attributing some of those events to Sting when the accounts clearly say they were undertaken by ‘Pickle’ and in the newspapers Sting is mentioned almost up to the middle of 1802 so clearly there are two separate vessels one is the original Pickle and the other is the Schooner that came to be the second Pickle.
Appears complicated but a lot would be explained if proof of a hired armed cutter arrangement could be found – which is something I have failed to do with the records at National Archives- (the ones on the N.A. website at least?
Regards Dave
I am a descendant of an uncle of Lt William Ram who died in the battle of Trafalgar on the Victory on 21 October 1805. I have come across your post in July in El blog de Antonio Orozco Guerrero. I have ordered your book but in the mean time I wonder whether you discovered any information about him or where he is buried or of his brother who died in Bermuda , according to the family history “in a valliant attempt to save the life of a fellow officer”, but according to a newpaper report in Bermuda they capsized on the way home crossing the harbour in St Georges after a night out!. We visited Gorey in S Ireland the home of the Ram family earlier this summer and met with a local historian, got some info , but not much about Lt William. Would be very interested in anything you have. How can I contact you direct.