Leslie Arthur Wilcox

(British, 1904-1982)

Jeannette, Trafalgar 1805

Footnotes

Provenance
With Fortnum & Mason Ltd.

This large work 'Jeannette, Trafalgar 1805' was painted for the RSMA Jubilee Exhibition at Guildhall, London. Mr Garfield Weston purchased the work, and for many years it hung in Fortnum and Mason's store, Piccadilly.

During the battle of Trafalgar numerous boats went out to collect possible survivors. It was the crew of HMS Pickle who came across a female amidst the wreckage. William Robinson, also known as Jack Nastyface, who volunteered for the navel service in 1805 and wrote the following;

"Among those who were thus preserved from a watery grave was a young Frenchwoman who was brought aboard our ship in a state of complete nakedness. Although it was in the heat of battle, yet she received every assistance which was at that time in our power; and her distress of mind was soothed as well as we could; until the officers got to their chests, from whence they furnished her with needles and thread to convert sheets into chemises and curtains from their cots to make somewhat of a gown and other garments so that by degrees she was made as comfortable as circumstances would admit; for we all tried who would be most kind to her".

The young woman was a survivor of the French 74 gun Achille and was the wife of one of that ship's crew who could not bear to be separated from him when he was ordered to sea. Disguising herself as a boy, she had entered the ship with him and had served at his side until she was told that he had been killed during the battle. Her reaction to his apparent death gave her away.