Order of St Joachim - 20th and 21st Centuries

20th and 21st Centuries

The Order historically has a small membership - 14 at its founding and only 75 at the time Nelson was made a member. It was reorganized in 1929 and 1948 and was led by Helmut von Bräundle-Falkensee (1950-2007) from 1988 until his death on 14 October 2007. He was an Austrian who was also Secretary General of the Austrian Albert Schweitzer Society. After his death, the Canadian Chevalier Stephen Lautens (b. 1959), who was serving as the Order's Coadjutor Grand Master, was elected the new Grand Master. It has its Chapterhouse in England and additional Commanderies in the United States, Canada and Austria. It is registered as a charity in the U.K. (UK registered charity No. 1047873) and supports the homeless, ex-servicemen, hospitals and children's charities. It is organized as a federal not-for-profit corporation in Canada. In Austria it operates a small volunteer service for the ambulatory care and transportation of the sick and needy.

A recent exhibition displaying the heraldry of Admiral Nelson at the College of Arms in 2005 featured a replica of Nelson's uniform with its honorary blazons. Among the orders of merit worn by Nelson, which included the Order of the Bath (whose heraldic expert was Hanson's brother-in-law Sir Thomas Cullum), was the Order of St Joachim. The star, said the College of Arms in its newsletter, was "the bogus Order of St. Joachim created and hawked around the Courts of Europe by 'Sir' Levett Hanson." In a subsequent newsletter several months later, the editors backed off their earlier condemnation, issuing a partial retraction:

"The Order of St. Joachim referred to in the last issue," said the College-of-Arms, "was not (as there stated) created by Levett Hanson but dated back to an order founded in 1755 by a group of mostly German princes."

The breast star of The Order of Saint Joachim Nelson was wearing at Trafalgar is attached to the famous "Trafalgar Coat" which he was wearing when mortally wounded at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805, and is on permanent display at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England.