Happy Birthday...

...Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith, the man who made Napoleon "miss his destiny", was born on the 21st June 1764. I'm not even going to attempt to summarise Smith's naval career with was completely mad even by 18th / 19th century RN standards! You can read Smith's story for yourself at his wikipedia entry here.

Sir Sidney Smith at Acre "This way to the fleshpots!"*

*Apologies for the Crusading joke. Clearly I have spent too much time hanging out with the one woman Plantagenet fandom that is esmerelda_t ;)