NELSON: THE PERSONAL SIDE OF A PUBLIC HERO - October/November 1998 British Heritage Feature

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NELSON: THE PERSONAL SIDE OF A PUBLIC HERO

At the National Maritime Museum’s Nelson Gallery, visitors catch a glimpse of the personality of England’s greatest naval warrior.

by David Williams

Few heroes have captured the heart and the imagination more than Horatio Nelson, who died nearly 200 years ago at the moment of his greatest victory. Although a fêted national hero, he displayed common human frailty. His colourful private life, coupled with his genius and daring as a naval commander, seem to make the Nelson story irresistible to every generation.

Born in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, in September 1758, Horatio Nelson entered the Royal Navy in January 1771 at the age of 12. He showed early promise, passing his lieutenant’s exam more than a year under the official age in 1777 and being made post-captain at the age of 21. With his own command, Nelson was in a position where his personal skills and bravery would be noticed.

Two paintings in the possession of the National Maritime Museum portray this fascinating but complicated character. The first, begun by Jean Francis Rigaud in 1777, was not completed until 1781, when Rigaud had to alter it to reflect a sitter who had not only been promoted but also had lost weight through illness while on duty. However, Rigaud certainly captured Nelson’s determined spirit, keen eye, and strong sense of self-confidence. These qualities gave him a presence that won the attention of nearly all who met him. In fact, Nelson’s charisma soon won him a very influential friend.

The Prince of Wales, who was then a young midshipman, observed Nelson on board Lord Hood’s flagship. The future King William IV described Nelson as ‘the merest boy of a captain I ever beheld.’ The young prince recalled: ‘His dress was worthy of attention. He had on a full laced uniform: his lank unpowdered hair was tied in a stiff hesian tail of extraordinary length; the old fashioned flaps of his waistcoat added to the general quaintness of his figure … I had never seen anything like it before.’ However, Prince William went on to add, there was ’something irresistibly pleasing in his address’ and the young royal sensed that Nelson was ‘no ordinary being’.

The second image of Nelson is very different. Painted nearly 20 years later, it shows the battered and be-medalled hero that we have come to know so well. Nelson agreed to sit for Lemuel Francis Abbott, who produced several variations of his original portrait, updating the Admiral’s decorations and appearance as appropriate.

At the original sitting, Nelson was still in great pain from the amputation of his right arm. His face shows the marks of illness, fatigue, and the strain of long periods at sea. But although now almost blind in his right eye, Nelson’s features reflect his zeal and indomitable spirit.

His portrait does not belie the more personal pains he suffered and his struggle with his own conscience. Now passionately in love with Emma, Lady Hamilton, wife of the ageing Sir William Hamilton, Britain’s ambassador at Naples, he realized that his own marriage was effectively over.

Nelson’s attire tells us something else. He had acquired a reputation for vanity, which sometimes got the better of his dignity. Caricaturists such as James Gillray made fun of Nelson’s desire to cover himself in medals and orders in public. His embarrassed fellow officers described him more like a prince of the opera than the hero of the Nile. When presented with a ‘Chelengk’, or plume of diamonds, by the Sultan of Turkey after that battle, he insisted on wearing it pinned on his cocked hat. The decoration contained a small mechanical device that, when wound, made its center rotate in a clockwise motion!

For all his quirky personal traits, his charisma and bravery as a naval commander never came into question. Nelson always led his men by example and from the front. He first made his name at the Battle of St. Vincent in February 1797. During this battle, although a commodore, he led a boarding party across first one enemy ship, and then proceeded to use that as a bridge to capture yet another.

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