Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson

Born

29 September 1758

Died

21 October 1805

A Norfolk clergyman’s son who had spent five years unemployed on shore before the war, Nelson was given a ship in January 1793 and made his career in the Mediterranean against the Republic. He lost the sight of an eye at Calvi in 1794 and an arm at Tenerife in 1797, and in August 1798 destroyed the French fleet in Aboukir Bay, stranding Bonaparte’s army in Egypt. At Naples the following year he refused to honour the capitulation granted to the Neapolitan republicans by Cardinal Ruffo, and had Admiral Caracciolo court-martialled and hanged aboard ship on 29 June 1799; his conduct there has been disputed ever since. He broke the Armed Neutrality at Copenhagen in 1801 and was killed at Trafalgar on 21 October 1805.

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