Admiral Parker was one of the best-known of the ‘pre-Nelson’ generation of British naval officers, and was famous for the part he played in the battles of The Glorious First of June in 1794 and Cape St Vincent in 1797. As a young midshipman in the 1760s he was assistant surveyor to the celebrated explorer James Cook during their joint survey of the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador, which at that time played a key role in Britain’s North Atlantic naval strategy.
Daphne Joynes will talk about her discovery of an unpublished manuscript chart of Newfoundland by the young William Parker which she found in the National Archive. She will also provide some interesting insights into the naval politics of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and speak about Parker’s disputes with Horatio Nelson and his increasingly bitter conflicts with the First Lord of the Admiralty.
Last year, which was the 250th anniversary of James Cook’s Endeavour voyage to the South Seas, Daphne lectured about Parker’s career aboard an expedition cruise which circumnavigated the island of Newfoundland. There is now growing interest in Cook’s pre-Pacific years and his early associates, and this talk at The Fan Museum should be of great interest both to naval and local Greenwich historians.
Daphne Joynes is a former lecturer in the History of Art at Surrey University and The Open University, and is now a now freelance writer and art historian.
Tickets: £15.00, advance booking only, includes light refreshments and an invitation to view the Museum’s treasured collection prior to the show.
Doors open 6.30pm
For tickets / further information, email: n.garratt@thefanmuseum.org.uk or call: 020 8305 1441
