According to most pundits, Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount, 1st Duke of Bronté, was the greatest naval tactician to have ever lived – even though two of his three most famous victories were attacks on ships at anchor, one of those of a neutral nation. And he fought stubbornly against the tides of freedom, including his suppression of the republican revolt in Naples. So the great hero of England is not without controversy as to his legacy.

Born into a moderately well-off family in 1758 AD in Burnham Thorpe (Norfolk), the sixth of 11 children, at the age of 12 Horatio joined the Royal Navy. So diligent and self-confident was he that within 20 years he was captain … didn’t hurt that his uncle, Maurice Suckling, was Comptroller of the Navy. Nelson first saw action in the West Indies during the American Revolution, beating up on hapless and outgunned Spanish ships and towns. But American independence had the Royal Navy facing cutbacks, and Nelson returned to England on indefinite leave and half-pay.

The French Revolution saw Nelson back in service, as the English sought to put down all that democratic nonsense … yet again. Nelson proved a very good commander: daring, bold, often reckless, stern but respected by his men, and willing to disobey orders, as he did when ordered to withdraw from the attack on the neutral Danish fleet at Copenhagen. He also managed to lose his right eye (Corsica, 1794) and an arm (Battle of Santa Cruz in Tenerife, 1797). All culminated at his great victory over the combined French-Spanish fleet in 1805 at Trafalgar, where Nelson was killed aboard his flagship 'HMS Victory' when felled by a French sharpshooter. Among his reported last words according to the ship’s surgeon William Beatty: “Thank God I have done my duty.”