Posted on 04/19/2005 6:05:31 AM PDT by tjwmason
The remains of sailors who died in Nelson's daring Nile campaign were reburied yesterday, just a few miles from where they died two centuries earlier.
As the sound of Last Post drifted across the Commonwealth war cemetery in Alexandria, five simple wooden coffins, draped in Union flags, were carried to their final resting place by Royal Navy sailors in crisp, white uniforms. The coffins were lowered into the graves and three volleys of gunfire provided a final salute.
The ceremony closed an extraordinary story that emerged in 2002 when Paolo Gallo, a professor of Egyptology at the University of Turin, discovered the remains of British servicemen while searching for Hellenic and Pharaonic mummies near Alexandria.
It soon emerged that the remains were those of sailors who lost their lives during the Battle of the Nile in Aboukir Bay in 1798, when the British fleet under Lord Nelson defeated Napoleon's ships, and in 1801, when a British expeditionary force landed in Egypt.
The Battle of the Nile was a remarkable victory in which Nelson's fleet outmanoeuvred and then annihilated its French foes, either capturing or destroying all but two of Napoleon's ships. The victory re-established British control over the Mediterranean and changed the course of history.
Yesterday's service was the culmination of three years' excavation by a team led by Nick Slope, the chairman of the Nelson Society and an archaeologist.
After he was contacted by the consul general in Alexandria, Mr Slope travelled to Nelson's island, 15 miles east of Alexandria and just 350 yards long, where, on landing for the first time, he was confronted by the unedifying sight of two legs sticking out of the soil.
He learned that the island was used as a military cemetery following the Battle of the Nile and the graves were being washed away by the rains.
Over several months, Mr Slope uncovered 32 graves of soldiers, sailors, marines, women and children.
"If it had not been for the work of Mr Slope and Prof Gallo, these remains would have been lost to nature," said the British ambassador to Egypt, Sir Derek Plumbly.
Only one body buried yesterday was identified - that of Cdr James Russell, master of HMS Ceres, who died aged 34. The other four coffins contained the remains of 30 other bodies.
Cdr Russell's descendant, Gordon Watson, 87, from Waterlooville, Hants, was at the ceremony with his 83-year-old wife, Joan.
Mr Watson, an RAF veteran, was wearing his war medals, as was his wife, who was a mechanic on Lancaster bombers in the Second World War.
At the end of the ceremony, one of the sailors marched over to Mr Watson and handed him the folded Union flag from Russell's coffin. He was visibly moved.
Mrs Watson said: "It is wonderful that he has finally received a proper Christian burial. He did not have any children and it is fitting that he is buried here with his friends, who were his family really."
Mr Watson added: "It is a very emotional occasion and the end of an exciting and fascinating journey for us. I cannot believe this has all happened and that we are part of it."
Mr Slope was overwhelmed. "I had to keep this project going without pay for many months but it was worth it in the end and now we have closed the circle. I am choked up.
"I have been an archaeologist for 25 years but this is my proudest moment. Often we are just digging things up but here I feel I have done something worthwhile in my life.
"We have given them a proper burial and recognition and learnt many new things about Nelson's era along the way."
To hear that they not only identified one of the bodies, but traced his descendant - himself a decorated war veteran - is magnificent.
Great story!
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