Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood

Cuthbert Collingwood was a Royal Navy officer and one of Horatio Nelson’s closest professional contemporaries. He served through the wars with Revolutionary and Napoleonic France and commanded HMS Royal Sovereign at Trafalgar in 1805, leading the lee column into the combined French and Spanish fleet.

After Nelson was mortally wounded, Collingwood assumed overall command and faced the immediate problem of preserving damaged ships and prizes during the severe storm that followed the battle. His conduct during both the action and its aftermath made him one of the central commanders of Trafalgar.

In Phil Craig and Tim Clayton’s Trafalgar, by treating the gale as part of the same historical event, Clayton and Craig extend the usual battle narrative into the difficult work of survival, rescue and loss. Nelson and Collingwood remain central commanders, but the book deliberately gives equal weight to lesser-known sailors and the domestic consequences of the battle.