George Parsons (shipbuilder)

His first employer there was a shipowner, Thomas Cooper, and a few years later, Philemon Ewer, a descendant of the pre-eminent local shipbuilder of the previous generation.

Two elm launch ways were built as were seven houses to help accommodate his men, plus a blacksmith's shop and an inn.

When the construction was in danger of collapse he won the contract in 1809 for the reconstruction to the improved design of John Rennie and this lasted until a modern bridge replaced it in the 1930s.

A contemporary obituary remarked that "He has left a high character for inflexible, undeviating integrity, and, the punctuality and uprightness with which he performed his Contracts with Government, in the building of ships of war for the Navy, gained him the esteem of the Navy Board, and render his death a public loss.

"[13] He is remembered especially for HMS Elephant which became, by chance, Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Copenhagen when Nelson transferred his flag from the 98-gun HMS St George as Elephant's shallower draught made her more suitable for the shallow waters around Copenhagen.

The frigate HMS Nymphe which was launched at Warsash three days before his death went, almost immediately, across the Atlantic to assist the naval effort during the War of 1812.