Horatio Nelson

Horatio Nelson was born in Norfolk, England, the son of a clergyman. He joined the Royal Navy at twelve on a ship commanded by his uncle and became a captain at only twenty. During the wars with Revolutionary France he lost the sight of his right eye in Corsica in 1794 and his right arm in an attack on Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1797. He was known for daring and for disobeying cautious orders when he judged it right, as at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent in 1797. In 1798 he destroyed Napoleon's fleet at anchor in Aboukir Bay at the Battle of the Nile, trapping the French army in Egypt. At Copenhagen in 1801 he is said to have put his telescope to his blind eye to avoid seeing a signal to withdraw. On October 21, 1805, off Cape Trafalgar in Spain, his fleet attacked the combined French and Spanish fleets in two columns. The British won a complete victory, ending Napoleon's hopes of invading Britain, but Nelson was shot by a French marksman and died during the battle.

Faith: Son of a parish rector from a clerical family. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911) (via Wikisource)