James Sharman - Church Plain, Great Yarmouth, UK
N 52° 36.603 E 001° 43.561
31U E 413736 N 5829655
This plaque, presented by the Nelson Socitey and Nelson Museum, indicates that James Sharman was press-ganged into the navy and served with Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. Sharman helped take the fatally wounded Nelson below decks.
Waymark Code: WMQ8A3
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 01/08/2016
Views: 1
The black plaque, that is attached to the north facing wall of the former Wrestlers Inn next to a plaque to Nelson, is inscribed:
James Sharman
1785 - 1867
Press ganged into
Nelson's Navy from this
site of the Wrestler's Inn
served with Nelson at the
Battle of Trafalgar
Nelson Society/Nelson Museum
The Nelson Society website tells us:
Think of “Nelson’s Column” and everyone’s attention swings at once to London and Trafalgar Square. But, mention this in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk and the townsfolk think of the 144 feet high column erected in the town in 1819 in honour of the “Norfolk Hero”. In fact, London had to wait until 1843 until Nelson’s Column was raised while Trafalgar Square wasn’t completed until 1867 – sixty-two years after Nelson’s death.
The Monument was erected by the County of Norfolk but the people of Yarmouth must have been proud when the organising committee agreed that the coastal town was the right place to erect it. Known as the “Norfolk Column” it was conceived during Nelson’s lifetime and was originally intended as a memorial to Nelson’s victory at The Nile but progress was slow and Nelson’s death changed its original purpose.
Large monuments require large sums of money and the “Norfolk Pillar” was built at a cost of about £10,000, a very big sum in those days and it took several years to raise by public donations. It was designed by William Wilkins and it features a huge figure of Britannia on a pillar surmounted by coadstone gilded victories, dolphins, a galley and oars. The pillar is hollow and 217 spiral steps on the inside lead upwards to a splendid view out across the North Sea. On completion a cottage was built nearby to house the “Keeper of the Pillar” and its first incumbent had a good claim to the job.
James Sharman was a Yarmouth man who, at the age of fourteen, was taken by a press gang in 1803 while working at the “Wrestlers Inn”, the inn Nelson had used in 1800 and 1801. By a twist of Fate, Sharman found himself aboard HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, which is proved by his entry in the ship’s Muster, and he claimed to have helped carry Nelson below when he was fatally wounded. Sharman, too, was wounded and eventually discharged from Naval Hospital to return to Yarmouth. He remained Keeper from 1819 until his death in 1867 but there is a strange little twist to this story because Sharman left his own “memorial” in quite a remarkable way.
In 1827, Sharman performed an act of great bravery in rescuing the crew of the brig Hammond that was wrecked on the beach near his cottage. Charles Dickens read the newspaper report and visited Sharman in his cottage in Yarmouth. Part of his novel “David Copperfield” is set in Yarmouth and Dickens based his character, Ham Peggoty, on James Sharman. Not only did he fight in one of the biggest naval battles in history, but he lives on in one of the most famous pieces of English Literature.
The Eastern Daily Press website tells us about one of the three medals awarded to James Sharman:
Medal awarded to Great Yarmouth war hero - who carried fatally wounded Nelson below deck - goes back on sale.
A rare medal awarded to a Great Yarmouth war hero who fought alongside Lord Nelson is back on the market - four years after hopes were dashed that it might make a return to its home town.
The Naval General Service Medal was pinned to the lapel of James Sharman who is credited as the man who carried Lord Nelson below deck after he was fatally shot during the Battle of Trafalgar.
The accolade is one of only three earned by the hero and first surfaced in 2008 when it came up for sale on internet auction site eBay.
Yarmouth’s Nelson Museum was among the bidders that hoped to clinch the sale but was priced out of the auction, which was eventually called off after a fake buyer put in a false bid.
It was thought the medal would never go up for sale again but collectors now have a second chance to snap up the important piece of Nelson memorabilia as it set to go on sale at a Cheshire auction house - with a guide price of £15,000 - £20,000.
Of Sharman’s remaining two medallions one has been lost and the other now resides in America.
The collector who is selling the General Service medal, and wishes to remain anonymous, bought the piece from the original seller after the eBay auction collapsed.
The collector, who specialises in Nelson and associated memorabilia, said: “He told me he’d like to fall back on my offer and we negotiated a deal at a price we were both happy with. I’m not revealing how much I paid but it was a very substantial sum because Sharman’s medal is very special.
“I’ve had the great pleasure of owning it for the last four years but now I’ve decided to put it back on the market so another collector, or perhaps a museum, can have the pleasure of enjoying it.”
But it is not likely that the medal will find a new home at Yarmouth’s Nelson Museum as it remains out of the independent attraction’s price range.
Curator Hannah Bentley said: “With that kind of guide price it’s just not going to be feasible for us sadly.
“We’ll be interested to see where it goes. I hope it goes to safe hands, it would be nice if another museum would be interested in acquiring it.”
Sharman is a particularly important figure to the museum as he is one of only a few men whose heroics on HMS Victory were specifically recorded.
As well as tending to the dying Nelson he was also chosen as the first “keeper of the pillar” by the Vice-Admiral’s best friend, Captain Masterman Hardy, when the town’s Nelson memorial was built.