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Nelson the manThis section covers Nelson’s personal life, his early naval career up to 1796 – before the major battles that made him a public hero – his later home life and his funeral. It also includes portraits of him done in his lifetime. View by:
About this collectionThis section covers Nelson’s personal life, his early naval career up to 1796 – before the major battles that made him a public hero – his later home life and his funeral. It also includes portraits of him done in his lifetime. Nelson was the third surviving son of a Norfolk clergyman. His mother died when he was nine. He entered the Navy in 1771, became a lieutenant in 1777 and a captain in 1779, during the American Revolutionary War, in which he served largely in the West Indies and North America. He married on the island of Nevis in 1787. From late 1787, when he left the Caribbean, Nelson was unemployed in England until sent to the Mediterranean at the start of the French Revolutionary War in 1793, the year he first met Sir William and Emma Hamilton at Naples. He only became closely involved with them after the Battle of the Nile in 1798, and Emma became his mistress the following year. They all returned to England in 1800 and Nelson and Emma’s daughter, Horatia, was born in January 1801, two years before Sir William’s death in 1803. In that year Nelson became naval commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean. He remained afloat almost continually until his death at Trafalgar on 21 October 1805, except for a short period at home with Emma and Horatia in August and September 1805. He was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral on 9 January 1806. Related websites |
