This exhibition brought together and celebrated two of Chile’s most significant figures. In Chile, Lord Thomas Cochrane has since the 19th century been a constant albeit principally subconscious presence in Chilean everyday life, through street and place names. Yet in his birthplace, Great Britain, he is widely forgotten or has been erased from public memory.

Cochrane’s liberal political credentials and position as a radical of his time were a strong draw for a poet of equal reputation. Pablo Neruda, the Chilean Nobel Prize-winning poet, diplomat and prominent politician wrote ‘Cochrane de Chile’ to commemorate Cochrane’s contribution to the liberation of Chile as one of eleven episodes in his 1967 work La Barcarola. A century apart, two radicals of their own time, whose lives were markedly similar and whose characters, equally so, are brought together to look anew at the life and legacy of Lord Thomas Cochrane.

 The exhibition shed new light on Cochrane’s exceptional life by exploring his ingenuity in naval warfare, inventiveness in engineering and his conviction in the fight against corruption and for the liberation of the oppressed. The exhibition also explored his legacy in the UK and in South America, and what role he still plays in these different cultures through the work of Neruda and Cochrane’s presence in Chile today.

In the 200th year since Chile gained its independence and the founding of the Chilean navy in 1818 by Lord Cochrane, this exhibition showcased the extraordinary fighter behind the fiction and beyond the scandal and tried to continue Douglas Cochrane’s quest before his death in 2007 to restore his third great grandfather’s legacy and name.

The exhibition started with a small collection of letters between Douglas Cochrane and Pablo Neruda following the creation of the poetic homage to Thomas Cochrane: from its spark at the dinner table in Douglas’ London home to its completion and the subsequent cantata that was commissioned to go along with the words. Additional objects were borrowed from members of the Cochrane family and a number of licensed images were used of paintings from the collections at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of Scotland.

I project managed and completed much of the exhibition myself. I undertook all research, developed the narrative of the exhibition and created the proposal enabling to gain funding and support from the Embassy of Chile in London, among other supporters. I sourced the objects that made up the exhibition with the help of members of the Cochrane family. Using my skills and design background, I designed all graphic elements, set out the arrangement of the exhibition, and managed all aspects of the project from liaising with printers and framers to organising the delivery of objects to the embassy ready for installation. I also coordinated the installation and dismantling of the exhibition and with some help, set it up in time for the opening.

The exhibition was opened by the Chilean Ambassador to the UK in a speech in which he paid tribute to Thomas Cochrane and Douglas Cochrane. As supporters of the exhibition representatives from the Chilean Naval Commission and the AngloChilean Society also gave speeches, as well as Pola Valdivieso who initiated the project and was the holder of the letters between Pablo Neruda and Douglas Cochrane (now donated to the Chilean Navy Collections).