Horatio Nelson

Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) was a British naval officer whose victories over French and Spanish fleets during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars made him one of the most celebrated commanders in British naval history. He rose through the Royal Navy from a young age, losing the sight in one eye and later his right arm in separate engagements, and won major victories at the Battle of the Nile in 1798 and the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801. His final and most famous victory came at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, where his fleet decisively defeated a combined French and Spanish force and secured British naval dominance for the rest of the Napoleonic Wars, but Nelson himself was fatally wounded during the battle.