Nelson, Horatio, Viscount Nelson

Nelson, Horatio, Viscount Nelson (1758-1805), admiral, b. Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, England.

Nelson was the son of a clergyman. He joined the Royal Navy at the age of twelve and, at the age of fifteen, went on a voyage to the Arctic. Afterwards he served in the East Indies and the West Indies and, at the age of twenty, was placed in command of a frigate.

Later he served in Central America, the North Sea and the waters off Canada, and spent three more years in the West Indies. He then retired.

In 1793, war broke out between Britain and France (later led by Napoleon), so Nelson went back to sea. He joined the fleet in the Mediterranean Sea and, in the capture of Corsica, lost the sight of his right eye.

In 1797, he became a rear-admiral and served under Sir John Jervis in the Battle of Cape St. Vincent. In this battle, the combined fleets of France and Spain were defeated. Nelson played an important part in this victory and was knighted. The same year he led an attack on Santa Cruz in the Canary Islands. The attack was defeated and Nelson lost his right arm.

Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798. But Nelson discovered his fleet in Aboukir Bay, near Alexandria, and completely destroyed it in the Battle of the Nile.

By 1801, he was second-in-command of a fleet led by Sir Hyde Parker which attacked Copenhagen, Denmark. Nelson led twelve ships into the harbour and came under fire from 600 guns. At this stage, Parker flew a signal ordering him to turn back, but Nelson placed a telescope to his blind eye and said, 'I really do see no signal.' The Battle of Copenhagen was a victory for the English fleet.

Soon a peace treaty was signed but after two years war broke out again. Nelson, by this time a viscount and an admiral, led a fleet into the Mediterranean. For two years he watched the port of Toulon and stopped the French fleet from putting to sea but the ships finally slipped out in March 1805. Six months later, on 21 October, 1805, Nelson faced the combined fleets of France and Spain off Cape Trafalgar in the South of Spain, and he defeated them in one of the most important sea battles in history. During the battle he was wounded by a musket shot and he died just as the battle ended.

Lord Nelson's body was brought to England and buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.

His flagship in the Battle of Trafalgar was a 110 gun ship-of-the-line named Victory, and it can be seen at Portsmouth on the south coast of England.

See Mark Adkin The Trafalgar Companion: The Complete Guide to History's Most Famous Sea Battle and the Life of Admiral Lord Nelson