2-798-637 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The coat worn by Nelson, at the Battle of Trafalgar, 1845. Part of the uniform of Admiral Horatio Nelson who was killed during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. '"The coat is the undress uniform of a vice-admiral, lined with white silk, with lace on the cuffs, and epaulettes. Four stars - of the Orders of the Bath, St. Ferdinand and Merit, the Crescent, and St. Joachim - are sewn on the left breast, as Nelson habitually wore them; which disproves the story, that he purposely adorned himself with his decorations on going into battle! The course of the fatal ball is shown by a hole over the left shoulder, and part of the epaulette is torn away; which agrees with Dr. Sir William Beattie's account of Lord Nelson's death, and with the fact that pieces of the bullion and pad of the epaulette adhered to the ball...The coat and waistcoat are stained in several places with the hero's blood."' From "Illustrated London News", 1845, Vol VII.