Time is everything; five minutes make the difference between victory and defeat.
Horatio Nelson
Born on 29 September 1758 in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, Horatio Nelson was the sixth of the 11 children in the family. His mother died when Nelson was only nine. He learnt to sail on Barton Broad on the Norfolk Broads. Nelson joined the navy aged 12 and became a captain at 20. Later Nelson became a British naval commander and national hero, famous for his naval victories against the French during the Napoleonic Wars.
He served in the Mediterranean, helped capture Corsica and saw battle at Calvi (where he lost the sight in his right eye). He would later lose his right arm at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1797.
Other his victories include one against the Spanish off Cape Vincent in 1797, and at the Battle of Copenhagen four years later, where he ignored orders to cease action by putting his telescope to his blind eye and claiming he couldn’t seen the signal to withdraw.
Trafalgar Square
At the Battle of the Nile in 1798, he successfully destroyed Napoleon’s fleet and thus his bid for a direct trade route to India. In 1801 Nelson was promoted to vice-admiral.
Some say that Horatio Nelson was vain and attention-seeking, but he was also brave, inspirational, and tactically brilliant. Nelson’s most famous engagement, at Cape Trafalgar, saved Britain from threat of invasion by Napoleon, but it would be his last. Nelson was killed by a French sniper while leading the attack on the combined French and Spanish fleet. It was in 1805.
The Death of Nelson
King George III, on receiving the news about Nelsons death, is alleged to have said, in tears, “We have lost more than we have gained.”
A number of monuments and memorials were constructed across the country to honour his memory and achievements. A statue of Horatio Nelson stands over 50m high in Trafalgar Square London to this day.
Nelson: The Battle of Trafalgar to Trafalgar Square
