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Horatio Nelson
The Right Honourable Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, KCB (29 September 1758 – 21 October 1805) was an Englishman, and a British admiral who won fame as a leading naval commander. He is famous for his participation in the Napoleonic Wars, most notably in the Battle of Trafalgar, where he lost his life. He became the greatest naval hero in the history of the United Kingdom, eclipsing Admiral Robert Blake in fame. His biography by the poet Robert Southey appeared in 1813, while the wars were still being fought. His love affair with Emma Hamilton, the wife of the British ambassador to Naples is also well known, and he is honoured by the London landmark of Nelson's Column, which stands in Trafalgar Square.

Early life
Horatio Nelson was born in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, England to the Reverend Edmund Nelson and Catherine Nelson. (His mother was a grandniece of Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford.) His mother died when Nelson was nine. He learned to sail on Barton Broad on the Norfolk Broads, was briefly educated at Paston Grammar School, North Walsham and by the time he was twelve, he had enrolled in the Royal Navy. His naval career began on 1 January 1771, when he reported to the third-rate Raisonnable as an Ordinary Seaman and coxswain. Nelson’s maternal uncle Captain Maurice Suckling commanded the vessel. Shortly after reporting aboard, Nelson was appointed a midshipman and began officer training. Ironically, Nelson found that he suffered from chronic seasickness, a complaint that dogged him for the rest of his life. By 1777 he had risen to the rank of lieutenant, and was assigned to the West Indies, during which time he saw action on the British side of the American Revolutionary War. By the time he was 20, in June 1779, he made captain; the 28-gun frigate Hinchinbrook, newly captured from the French, was his first command. In 1781 he was involved in an action against the Spanish fortress of San Juan in Nicaragua. Though a success, the efforts involved still damaged Nelson's health to the extent that he returned to England for more than a year. He eventually returned to active duty and was assigned to Albemarle, in which he continued his efforts against the American rebels until the official end of the war in 1783.

Command
In 1784, Nelson was given command of the 28-gun Boreas, and assigned to enforce the Navigation Act in the vicinity of Antigua. This was during the denouement of the American Revolutionary War, and enforcement of the act was problematic—now-foreign American vessels were no longer allowed to trade with British colonies in the Caribbean Sea, an unpopular rule with both the colonies and the Americans. After seizing four American vessels off Nevis, Nelson was sued by the captains of the ships for illegal seizure. As the merchants of Nevis supported them, Nelson was in peril of imprisonment and had to remain sequestered on Boreas for eight months. It took that long for the courts to deny the captains their claims, but in the interim Nelson met Fanny Nesbit, a widow native to Nevis, whom he would marry on 11 March 1787 at the end of his tour of duty in the Caribbean.

Nelson lacked a command starting in 1789, and lived on half pay for several years (a reasonably common occurrence in the peacetime Royal Navy). However, as the French Revolution began to export itself outside of France's borders, he was recalled to service. Given the 64-gun Agamemnon in 1793, he soon started a long series of battles and engagements that would seal his place in history.

He was first assigned to the Mediterranean, based out of the Kingdom of Naples. In 1794 he was shot in the face during a joint operation at Calvi, Corsica, which cost him both half of his right eyebrow and the sight in his right eye. Despite popular legend, there is no evidence that Nelson ever wore an eye patch, though he was known to wear an eyeshade to protect his remaining eye.

In 1796, the commander-in-chief of the fleet in the Mediterranean passed to Sir John Jervis, who appointed Nelson to be commodore and to exercise independent command over the ships blockading the French coast. Agamemnon, often described as Nelson's favourite ship, was by now worn out and was sent back to England for repairs. Nelson was appointed to HMS Captain.

Trafalgar
On 21 October 1805, Nelson engaged in his final battle, the Battle of Trafalgar. Napoleon Bonaparte had been massing forces once again for the invasion of the British Isles. However, he had already decided that his navy was not adequate to secure the Channel for the invasion barges and had started moving his troops away for a campaign elsewhere in Europe. On the 19th, the French and Spanish fleet left Cádiz, probably because Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, the French commander, had heard that he was to be replaced by another admiral. Nelson, with twenty-seven ships, engaged the thirty-three opposing ships.

Nelson's last dispatch, written on the 21st, read:

At daylight saw the Enemy's Combined Fleet from East to E.S.E.; bore away; made the signal for Order of Sailing, and to Prepare for Battle; the Enemy with their heads to the Southward: at seven the Enemy wearing in succession. May the Great God, whom I worship, grant to my Country, and for the benefit of Europe in general, a great and glorious Victory; and may no misconduct in any one tarnish it; and may humanity after Victory be the predominant feature in the British Fleet. For myself, individually, I commit my life to Him who made me, and may his blessing light upon my endeavours for serving my Country faithfully. To Him I resign myself and the just cause which is entrusted to me to defend. Amen. Amen.
As the two fleets moved towards engagement, he then ran up a thirty-one flag signal to the rest of the fleet which spelled out the famous phrase "England expects that every man will do his duty".

After crippling the French flagship Bucentaure, the Victory moved on to the Redoutable. The two ships entangled each other, at which point snipers in the fighting tops of the Redoutable were able to pour fire down onto the deck of the Victory. Nelson was one of those hit: a bullet entered his shoulder, pierced his lung, and came to rest at the base of his spine. Nelson retained consciousness for four hours, but died soon after the battle was concluded with a British victory. The Victory was then towed to Gibraltar, with Nelson's body on board preserved in a barrel of brandy. Upon his body's arrival in London, Nelson was given a state funeral and entombment in St. Paul's Cathedral. He was laid to rest in a wooden coffin made from the mast of L'Orient which had been salvaged after the Battle of the Nile. The sarcophagus in which he was entombed was originally built for Cardinal Wolsey, but when Wolsey fell from favour, it was confiscated by Henry VIII.

Legacy
Nelson was noted for his considerable ability to inspire and bring out the best in his men, to the point that it gained a name: "The Nelson Touch". Famous even while alive, after his death he was lionized like almost no other military figure in British history (his only peers are the Duke of Marlborough and Nelson's contemporary, the Duke of Wellington). Nelson was included in the top 10 of the 100 Greatest Britons poll sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the public. Most military historians believe Nelson's ability to inspire officers of the highest rank and seamen of the lowest was central to his many victories, as was his unequaled ability to both strategically plan his campaigns and tactically shift his forces in the midst of battle. He may have been the greatest field commander in history. Certainly, he stands as the greatest warrior afloat. It must also be said that his "Nelson touch" also worked with non-seamen; he was beloved in England by virtually everyone. (The only people not affected by him were those offended by his affair with Lady Hamilton)

Monuments to Nelson
The monumental Nelson's Column and the surrounding Trafalgar Square are notable locations in London to this day, and Nelson was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. The first large moument to Nelson was a 43.5m tall pillar on Glasgow Green erected less than year after his death in 1806. Nelson's Monument was later constructed atop Calton Hill in Edinburgh. A Monument in Great Yarmouth to Nelson was started before his death but only completed in 1819. This is sometimes known as the Britannia monument as it is topped by that martial female rather than a statue of Nelson; a statue of Nelson can however be found in the grounds of Norwich Cathedral alongside the other Napoleonic hero, the Duke of Wellington, near the school he attended.

In Montreal there is a monument to Nelson erected in 1809 in Place Jacques-Cartier which was a market place at the time. It has carved scenes from Nelson's career around the base and the statue on top was claimed to be the oldest public statue of Nelson in the world. It has been removed due to excessive weathering.

There is also the Nelson memorial in Swarland, Northumberland which was raised as a private memorial of Nelson by his friend and sometime agent, Alexander Davison. The monument to Nelson in Dublin was destroyed by an IRA bomb in 1966 (see Nelson's Pillar).

The city of Nelson, New Zealand bears his name as well as Nelson Island on the Sunshine Coast, British Columbia, Canada.

Related;
Battle of Trafalgar