Cuddy's Diary

Charles Miller's autumn auction is coming up at the end of the month and the star lot this time round has to be this "Diary written by Admiral Lord Collingwood whilst commanding the British Fleet in the Mediterranean dec 1807 to January 1810." There is no information about the provenance of the diary but Miller's are a reputable auction house so I presume this is the genuine article. The diary is estimated to fetch between £6,000 and £8,000 so you'd better start counting your pennies now! Of course there are lots of other covetable lots in the auction too, including some beautiful POW made ship models, which I'll post some pictures of later.



The catalogue describes the diary as follows:

Approximately 45 pages of laid paper written in a hasty hand and comprising a sporadic sequence of memoranda and remarks describing operations, movement of ships, allies, enemies, navigational conditions etc.: Russian manoeuvres cause alarm: ..a letter from Capt. Harvey informing me that all the Russian vessels of war - Viz 4 Ships of the line, 3 frigates, 3 Corvettes etc. - had sailed from Corfu up the Adriatic on the 26th last - they passed near the English ships - had Russian colours up but showed no disposition to chase them. I suspect the French frigates have been escorted by the Russians.. ...No account yet of the French fleet - I shall therefore proceed of cape Sapienza for a few days and getting to advise of them return to the coast of Sicily.. (2/1/1808); later that year: A Portuguese boat from the Nilia Real, and brot.[sic] information that on the 13th July a numerous Body of Portuguese 7 Spaniards attacked the French at Lisbon - they continued the assault for 6 days.. (3/8/1808); continuing with similar content and ending with an interesting account of the Battle of the Roses: ..the Enemy is in possession of some of the end works - in this town is a Military company of women - of 260 called the Company of St. Barbara - armed and doing duty on the Garrison - they are Commanded by a Lady of fashion, the officers are women of quality - this [illegible] Corps is distinguished for its gallentry -- (10/12/1809), bound between original vellum boards inscribed on cover -- 7½ x 6½in. (19 x 16.5cm.)

The Company of St Barbara

I've done a bit of digging to see what I could find out about the mysterious Amazonian Company of St Barbara that so impressed Cuddy. It appears that the company were a brigade of Irish women, commanded by Lucy Fitzgerald, who fought at the Third Siege of Girona during the Peninsular War from 1808 - 1809. At the start of the siege the town was garrisoned by a division of Irish troops, the 1st Battalion of the Ultonia Regiment, led by Colonel Anthony O'Kelly from Roscommon, who were reinforced by grenadiers from the Hibernia Regiment, commanded by the splendidly named Colonel Juan Sherlock. As was common at the time, many of the officers were accompanied by their wives. Peter Berresford Ellis has written an interesting article about the Ulster regiments in Spain, which includes the following moving account of the bravery of the Company of St Barbara.



Ramon Martí i Alsina, El Gran dia de Girona
( Certainly Girona was that day the abode of heroines )