Burials on Nelson's Island

In 2000, Italian archaeologist Dr Paolo Gallo, while excavating Hellenistic and Pharaonic structures on Nelson's Island, Aboukir Bay, discovered a lost Royal Navy burial ground from Nelson's time. A British team was invited by Dr Gallo to excavate these burials, which subsequently revealed graves containing officers, sailors, soldiers, marines, women and children.

A poignant discovery was that of three infants. Two were either stillborn or had died shortly after birth, and one had died at just a few months old. Each was buried in a wooden coffin, wrapped in a shroud held together with small bronze pins, and one had been carefully packed in wood shavings.

Directly next to one infant was the grave of a woman in a wooden coffin, and it is likely that this was her child. She had been laid to rest in a dress, and her face had been covered with what looks like a handkerchief. On the coffin lid had been nailed a large metal letter 'G'. There are currently three possible candidates for this burial. John Nicol, one of Nelson's sailors who took part in the Battle of the Nile (1798), wrote that a woman from Leith, Scotland, was injured whilst serving the guns on HMS Goliath, subsequently died of her wounds, and was 'buried on a small island in the Bay'.

Two other women from the army regiments from the 1801 expedition were recorded to have died on board the ships moored in Aboukir Bay. One was Mrs Lambe, of the 3rd Guards Regiment (now the Scots Guards), and the other was Sarah Webber of the Coldstream Guards. Any one of these could have merited the mysterious 'G' (standing perhaps for 'Goliath' or 'Guards').

The historical and archaeological record thus makes it clear that women fought, nursed, accompanied their husbands, gave birth, entertained and even enlisted in disguise to serve in Nelson's Navy. These findings have forced us to re-examine the social and organisational nature of Nelson's crews, and has painted a much fuller and more complex picture of those who inhabited the 'wooden world'.

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Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924)

Wilson was the 28th president of the United States. More than any other president before him, he was responsible for increasing American involvement in world affairs and his idealistic vision led to the creation of the League of Nations.

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton, Virginia, on 28 December 1856. His father was a Presbyterian minister. Wilson was raised in Georgia and South Carolina against the backdrop of the American Civil War. He studied at Princeton University, briefly became a lawyer and then went to John Hopkins University where he received a doctorate in history and political science.

After a successful academic career, Wilson became president of Princeton University, serving between 1902 and 1910. His reforming efforts brought him attention and the New Jersey Democrats asked him to run for governor in 1910. His victory launched his political career. In 1912, he ran as the Democratic candidate for president and won.

Wilson's domestic policies included the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which provides the framework that still regulates US banks and money supply. Wilson sought to maintain American neutrality after the outbreak of World War One and was re-elected president in 1916 on the slogan 'He Kept Us Out of War'. But the German policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, which included the sinking of American shipping, led Wilson to bring the US into the conflict in April 1917.

In January 1918, in a major speech to Congress, Wilson laid out his Fourteen Points, which he believed should form the basis of the peace settlements in Europe. He attended the Versailles peace negotiations to advocate this programme, but the resulting treaties left him bitterly disappointed. Wilson returned to the US and waged a futile struggle to win United States ratification of the Treaty of Versailles and American support for the new League of Nations. He was awarded the 1919 Nobel Prize for Peace for his efforts to create the league.

In September 1919, Wilson suffered a massive stroke. He refused to resign, but was unable to function adequately for the rest of his presidential term. He died in Washington DC on 3 February 1924.

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Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

A Spanish painter who is widely acknowledged to be the most important artist of the 20th century. He experimented with a wide range of styles and themes in his long career, most notably inspiring 'Cubism'.

Pablo Ruiz was born in Malaga on 25 October 1881, the son of an art teacher. He later adopted his mother's maiden name of Picasso. He grew up in Barcelona, showing artistic talent at an early age. In the early 1900s, he moved between France and Spain before finally settling in Paris in 1904. There he experimented with a number of styles and produced his own original ones, reflected in his 'Blue' and 'Rose' periods.

In 1907 Picasso painted 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon', a revolutionary work that introduced a major new style - 'Cubism'. Picasso worked closely with the French artist Georges Braque in the development of this style. Picasso's next major innovation, in 1912, was 'Collage', attaching pieces of cloth, newspaper or advertising to his paintings.

Picasso now moved from style to style, experimenting with painting and sculpture and becoming involved with the Surrealist movement. In 1937, he produced 'Guernica', a painting inspired by the destruction of the town in northern Spain by German bombers during the Spanish Civil War. Picasso supported the Republican government fighting General Francisco Franco, and never returned to Spain after Franco's victory.

Unlike many artists, Picasso remained in Paris during the German occupation. From 1946 to his death he lived mainly in the south of France. He continued to produce a huge variety of work including paintings, sculptures, etchings and ceramics.

Picasso was involved with a number of women during his life who were often artistic muses as well as lovers. He had four children. On 8 April 1973, he died of a heart attack at his home near Cannes.

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Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

Abraham Lincoln © Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States and one of the great American leaders. His presidency was dominated by the American Civil War.

Abraham Lincoln was born on 12 February 1809 near Hodgenville, Kentucky. He was brought up in Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. His parents were poor pioneers and Lincoln was largely self-educated. In 1836, he qualified as a lawyer and went to work in a law practice in Springfield, Illinois. He sat in the state legislature from 1834 to 1842 and in 1846 was elected to Congress, representing the Whig Party for a term. In 1856, he joined the new Republican Party and in 1860 he was asked to run as their presidential candidate.

In the presidential campaign, Lincoln made his opposition to slavery very clear. His victory provoked a crisis, with many southerners fearing that he would attempt to abolish slavery in the South. Seven southern states left the Union to form the Confederate States of America, also known as the Confederacy. Four more joined later. Lincoln vowed to preserve the Union even if it meant war.

Fighting broke out in April 1861. Lincoln always defined the Civil War as a struggle to save the Union, but in January 1863 he nonetheless issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in areas still under Confederate control. This was an important symbolic gesture that identified the Union's struggle as a war to end slavery.

In the effort to win the war, Lincoln assumed more power than any president before him, declaring martial law and suspending legal rights. He had difficulty finding effective generals to lead the Union armies until the appointment of Ulysses S Grant as overall commander in 1864.

On 19 November 1863, Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address at the dedication of a cemetery at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg, a decisive Union victory that had taken place earlier in the year.

In 1864, Lincoln stood for re-election and won. In his second inaugural address, he was conciliatory towards the southern states.

On 9 April 1865, the Confederate general Robert E Lee surrendered, effectively ending the war. It had lasted for more than four years and 600,000 Americans had died. Less than a week later, Lincoln was shot while attending a performance at Ford's Theatre in Washington DC and died the next morning, 15 April 1865. His assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was a strong supporter of the Confederacy.

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