Colin Saunders White (28 August 1951 – 25 December 2008) was a British military historian, director of the Royal Naval Museum from 2006 until his death and one of Britain's leading experts on Admiral Horatio Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar.
[1] The elder of two boys born to a chartered electrical engineer and a former Wren, he moved with his family from South London to Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, at a young age.
[2] Educated at Culford School, Bury St. Edmunds, he attended Southampton University, where he took his bachelor's degree in history in 1974, and King's College, London, where he took an M.A.
[2] Despite being profoundly deaf and asthmatic, White was a long-standing member of the Southsea Shakespeare Actors and a popular after-dinner speaker.
As a mark of respect, all the ships in Portsmouth Harbour, including HMS Victory, lowered their ensigns to half-mast.