Nelson remembered

This 21 October marks the 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. It also marks the 200th anniversary of the death of Horatio, Admiral Lord Nelson, hero of Trafalgar and British Naval history.

He was a very interesting man. Unfortunately, the PC crowd has decided to make the Battle of Trafalgar, one of the most important naval victories in history, into a politically correct little game. You can read a post I wrote about it in June here. Really, how dare the British have won???

Another outrage, who should be honored in Trafalgar Square? Nick had the story.

And for those of you who haven't heard about Lord Nelson, here is an article that reads as a sort of biography.

AFP: Nelson remembered 200 years after Trafalgar---

CAPE TRAFALGAR, Spain (AFP) - One-armed, half-blind -- and utterly vain -- Nelson was a brilliant tactician whose unerring bravery earned him the right to stare out eternally over London, cast in stone atop a landmark column feting the greatest hero in British naval history.

Vice-Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson, conqueror of the Napoleonic French fleet and their Spanish allies here exactly 200 years ago, has been immortalised in shoals of romantic accounts inspired by his derring-do exploits as a bold but compassionate leader.

Yet the dashing Horatio had to rise from the humblest of beginnings to become one of his country's most lauded heroes.

He was born at Burham Thorpe on September 29, 1758 in England's tranquil eastern flatlands of Norfolk, the sixth child of Reverend Edmund Nelson and Catherine Suckling Nelson, who died when Horatio was nine.

Aged just 12 he joined the navy as a midshipman aboard the Raisonnable commanded by his uncle, Captain Maurice Suckling and within eight years had assumed the rank of captain after proving his mettle from the West Indies to the Baltic.

In 1787 Nelson wed Frances Nisbet, and six years later the advent of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793 saw him take command of the Agamemnon.

Glory and pain followed in equal measure in the Mediterranean, as Nelson took Corsica, then lost the sight in his right eye at Calvi.

Undeterred, he turned the situation to his advantage, famously declaring at the Battle of Copenhagen as the Danish fleet approached: "I have a right to be blind sometimes -- I really do not see the signal!"

In 1797, he lost his right arm at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, whereupon more normal mortals might have retired from active service to brag of their war wounds.

Not the progenitor of shock tactics which included a flagrant disregard for orders from above, something which stood him regularly in good stead.

Prior to Trafalgar, Nelson had already acquired fame for a crushing win over the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile in 1798.

A posting to Naples then brought distraction in the shape of his muse Emma, Lady Hamilton, whom he had first met in 1793.

To read the rest of the story, and find out about the Battle of Trafalgar, continue here.