Talk:Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson/Archive 3

Photo of wax figure
A photo of his wax figure at Madame Tussaud's in London can be found here. It is a cropped version of a scanned analogous photo taken by me in 2004. As such I am the copyright holder of this photo. Non-commercial use is freely allowed as long as you don't claim to have taken it yourself.

2010-12-29 Lena Synnerholm, Märsta, Sweden.

First Name originally "Horace"?
Hello -

I have a credible reference (Great Commanders by the US Army War College) that attests: "His name was Horace—not Horatio. His older brother Horatio had died in infancy and it was by this name, in 1777 at the age of 21, that Nelson began to refer to himself. Horace Nelson was born to the Anglican rector Edmund Nelson and his wife Catherine on 29 August 1758 in Burnham Thorpe, a small town located in Norfolk just inland from the coast. etc." This is not commented on here. A few other websites make note. Is this to be believed? Thanks. JMOprof (talk) 18:30, 10 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Not particularly, he was christened Horatio, as most good references will tell you, including works like the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and the latest and most comprehensive biography of Nelson's early life, John Sugden's Nelson: A Dream of Glory. Nelson did use 'Horace' to refer to himself, but as a pet name. By 1777 he was signing himself Horatio both in official correspondence, and in letters to his brother William, the diminutive pet name lapses thereafter. After his ennoblement he experiments with various changes in how he signs and refers to himself, including 'Bronte Nelson', 'Bronte Nelson of the Nile', and 'Nelson and Bronte', settling eventually for the last of these. The choice of 'Horace' on the part of young Nelson may well have come from his two sponsors and patrons, both distant relations, Dr Horace Hammond, and Horatio Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, as well as being a common contraction for the name. (Horace Walpole, the 4th Earl of Orford, was officially 'Horatio Walpole', but stuck with the diminutive form, much as people called Edward might choose to be known as Ted, or William to be known as Bill, Will, etc).
 * If sources claim he was 'Horace' and not 'Horatio', they have read too much into this usage. Certainly the 'Horace' does not reappear in any meaningful way after 1777 and he is overwhelmingly known by Horatio, his title, or variations thereon. Incidentally if your source really does state that Nelson was born on 29 August 1758, they've committed a far more glaring error! Benea (talk) 20:19, 10 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Thank you. The source does indeed say 29 August (that was a copy-and-paste out of a PDF).  At least if agrees on the 1777 &#9786; JMOprof (talk) 21:18, 10 October 2012 (UTC)

Copyediting needed
Am currently reading this and it needs a really good copyedit I think. Seems to be a very good account, but definitely needs work on the flow of it.♦ Dr. Blofeld  12:25, 17 August 2013 (UTC)