Edward Henry Collingwood - (1817 - 1878) was related to (distant nephew) Francis Edward Collingwood - (1785 - 1835) and his father Francis Collingwood and grandfather Edward that had connections to Greenwich and Chatham Dockyards. Our own family have researched the claims of John Pollard that he alone killed the French sniper on board the 'Redoubtable'. Coming forwards 40yrs after the event, writing to the 'Times' only suggests that Pollard was present but 'WHY' so many years after Collingwood died?
Arthur Devis's masterpiece depicting 'The Death of Nelson' (which is displayed in the Greenwich museum)was well researched and 'rough cartoons' of all the characters present were made at the time that Nelson was taken below decks to die. It was suggested at the time on board the Victory that witnesses saw one or two midshipmen crouching and firing at the French sniper. Collingwood who was 'rated' as a sharp-shot was also seen to be handed a loaded rifle and fire a second or third shot. Witnesses said Collingwood then returned to his post when he saw the sniper first fall in to the mizen ropes that left him mortally wounded and dangling from the mast. Falling to the deck it was assumed Collingwood had fired the fatal shot?
http://welshjournals.llgc.org.uk/browse/viewpage/llgc-id:1165908/llgc-id:1166683/llgc-id:1166695/getTextTwo Pembrokeshire midshipmen were in HMS Victory with Lord Nelson.
Of Robert Cutts Barton little is known except that he was born in the
county in 1785 and joined HMS Victory off Toulon on 31 July 1803 from
the frigate HMS Amphion in which he had gone out from Britain. Two
weeks after Trafalgar he transferred to HMS Queen 98, flagship of Admiral
Collingwood. He was promoted lieutenant in 1806 and served in the boats
of the Apollo cutting out a convoy in Rosas Bay in 1809. Barton was made
a commander in 1819 and died aged 42 at Bideford in 1827.102
The other Pembrokeshire midshipman in HMS Victory, Francis Edward
Collingwood, born at Milford on 23 March 1785, is immortalised in Arthur
Devis' famous painting of the death of Nelson. The Admiral's biographer,
Carola Oman,103 records that some midshipmen, walking wounded, were
being treated in the cockpit where Nelson lay dying. In the painting
Collingwood is shown standing in the background with Lieutenant Yule,
'their British bulk and complexions contrasting with those of the Admiral's
wizened, whiskered Neopolitan valet'.104
Collingwood was the son of 'Francis Collingwood of Greenwich Esq. by
Sarah, sister of Captain Thomas Richbell RN, Chief Magistrate of the
Thames Police'.105 His grandfather, Edward Collingwood, had been Master
Attendant at Plymouth, Portsmouth, Chatham and Deptford Dockyards.
After serving in sloops and frigates, and in Foley's old Nile command,
HMS Goliath, Collingwood joined HMS Victory at Spithead on 14 Sep-
tember 1805, the month before Trafalgar. Young Collingwood has long
been reputed to have been the avenger of the death of Nelson by having
shot the French sharpshooter in the rigging of the Redoutable. This dis-
tinction was, however, claimed by a fellow midshipman, John Pollard, then
in retirement at the Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich, in a letter to The
Times on 13 May 1863 in which he said that Collingwood had been with
him on the poop of the flagship but for a short time only:
It is true my old shipmate, Collingwood, who has now been dead
some years, did come in the poop for a short time. I had discovered
the men crowding in the tops of the Redoutable, and pointed them
out to him, when he took up a musket and fired once; then he left
the poop, I conclude, to return to his station on the quarter deck. I
remained firing until there was not a man to be seen in the top last one I saw coming down the mizzen rigging, and he fell from my
fire also. King, the quartermaster, was killed while in the act of
handing me a parcel of ballcartridge, long after Collingwood had
left the poop. I remained there till some time after the action was
concluded, assisting in rigging the jurymast; then I was ushered into
the wardroom, where Sir Thomas Hardy and other officers were
assembled, and complimented by them as the person who avenged
Lord Nelson's death.
Modern historians have tended to support Pollard but the issue remains
unclear and the Milford officer may well have had a hand in avenging his
Commander-in-Chief.106 After the Redoutable surrendered Collingwood led
a party across from the Victory to tackle fires which threatened to destroy
this major French prize, 'which service he performed in a manner highly
satisfactory.' He was promoted lieutenant in January 1806.
Collingwood subsequently saw much active service. He was 'constantly
employed' in the Walcheren Expedition in 1809 and was twice wounded
when in command of the revenue cutter Kite on the Irish coast in the
1820's. In 1822 he married Ellen, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Collis of Co.
Kerry. His sister was the wife of Dr J.D. Burke, Surgeon of Pembroke
Dockyard. Collingwood was made a commander in 1828 and died aged 50
at Tralee in 1835.
