Keywords: John Pollard (Royal Navy officer).png en A young man called Midshipman John Pollard 1787-1868 Oval head-and-shoulders miniature said to be of John Pollard half turned to sitter's right but facing forward in a blue coat not apparently uniform white shirt and black stock It is executed in watercolour and gum arabic on ivory probably and is contained within an oval gilt metal frame with a black-lacquered rectangular wooden surround fitted with a suspension ring A brass plate on the front of the surround is engraved 'Mid J Pollard R N / H M S Victory / Trafalgar 1805 ' The element of doubt is provided by the fashionable dress which looks late-1820s in date when Pollard would then have been about 40 - much older than the sitter appears Pollard was on 'Victory's' quarter deck at Trafalgar where he was one of the first hit but only bruised on the arm by a heavy splinter His telescope was then shot through a foot above his hand by a musket ball and his watch smashed in his pocket by another which just grazed his skin beneath He returned the fire of the sniper who shot Nelson from the mizzen top of the French 'Redoutable' and was generally credited with killing him and congratulated accordingly by Captain Hardy though all that is certain and all he claimed was that his fire cleared the top of men Pollard entered the Navy in the 'Havick' sloop in November 1799 He served in the 'Culloden' 74 in 1802 the 'Canopus' 80 in 1803 and transferred from her to 'Victory' in the Mediterranean from March to November 1805 after being rated midshipman He was promoted lieutenant after Trafalgar serving under Collingwood in the 'Queen' off Cadiz then in the 'Dreadnought' under St Vincent and the 'Hibernian' His final active service was in the 'Brunswick' in the Kattegat He then spent 14 years on half-pay during which time he married in 1822 and eventually had six children before being given a post in the ordinary reserve at Chatham 1828-31 and then in the coastguard in Ireland from 1836 In 1852 or 1853 he was finally appointed a Lieutenant of Greenwich Hospital and later made an honorary retired commander - both belated acknowledgement of his role at Trafalgar He died at Greenwich on 23 April 1868 Comparison of the miniature with a photograph of Pollard in later life is inconclusive John_Pollard_ Royal_Navy_officer jpg 50 2012-02-13 03 34 UTC John_Pollard_ Royal_Navy_officer jpg unidentified derivative work Yjenith <span class signature-talk >talk</span> Cropped and transparent version Yjenith John_Pollard_ Royal_Navy_officer jpg PD-old-100 Original upload log This image is a derivative work of the following images File John_Pollard_ Royal_Navy_officer jpg licensed with PD-Art PD-Art-100 PD-old-100 2012-02-13T01 48 28Z KAVEBEAR 988x1280 737910 Bytes <nowiki> en A young man called Midshipman John Pollard 1787-1868 Oval head-and-shoulders miniature said to be of John Pollard half turned to sitter's right but facing forwa</nowiki> Uploaded with derivativeFX 1787 births 1868 deaths Paintings in the National Maritime Museum London Royal Navy officers Portrait miniatures in the United Kingdom Black stocks in art |