Celebrating Broke's Success

Des Pawson of lpswich Maritime Trust Richard Edgar-Wilson, President of the Old Ipswichian Club, and I are progressing with work on three ways of acknowledging Admiral Broke's success and abilities, and the bicentenary of his defeat of the USS Chesapeake in HMS Shannon on 1 June 1813. We plan to:

• Have a one-day symposium in Ipswich at University Campus Suffolk, which is linked to the Universities of Essex and East Anglia.
• Hold a concert at St Martin's, Nacton, Broke's home village, where he is buried.
• Publish a book/anthology of papers by a variety of writers for which I would provide the framework and would edit.

We must stress that these would all be aimed at interesting the general public who are largely ignorant of Broke and the War of 1812, rather that the academic world, although the scholarship should still be of high quality. The agreed date is the weekend of 12-13 October 2013,10 am to 5.20 pm. The symposium will be held in the 120-seat lecture hall of the UCS Waterfront building in Ipswich's great Victorian Wet Dock. The large attached foyer will be used for a buffet lunch and for the launch of the anthology, as well as a display of other relevant books, especially those of the speakers. The concert is being organised on the Sunday afternoon by Richard Edgar-Wilson, the international tenor. Broke was at Ipswich School before entering the Royal Navy at a tender age and the concert is doubling as the Old Ipswichians' President's Event for 2013. Please let me know if you feel you can contribute in any way.

Tim Voelcker