Rare letters by Lord Nelson to his lover and more go on display in new exhibition at the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth

The new exhibition at the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, includes documents never shown in public before.

Nelson: In His Own Words focuses on 30 rare and previously unpublished documents from the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation’s Nelson collection alongside other personal items from the museum’s own collections including a betrothal ring given by Nelson to his mistress, miniature portraits, and a meat platter from HMS Victory.

In one letter to Emma Hamilton in the days leading up to the birth of their daughter, Nelson writes: ‘My Dear Lady Hamilton, When I consider that this day 9 months was your birthday, and that although we had a gale of wind, yet I was happy and sung ‘Come Cheer up Fair Emma’ even the thought compared with this day makes me melancholy, my heart somehow is sunk within me.’

Written with his left hand, after losing his right arm at the Battle of Santa Cruz, the letters are peppered with fascinating insights from everyday gossip and anecdotes to historic events, and breaking news of the Battle of the Nile. The letters take the reader through Nelson’s relationship with Emma Hamilton to just a few days before his death at Trafalgar on HMS Victory, all of which can be seen and visited from the gallery.

Matthew Sheldon, NMRN’s executive director, said: ‘The letters were written in the turbulent and troubled years which were the peak of Nelson’s fame.

‘They might be sent from the middle of the Atlantic or the Mediterranean, be written when rushing to get his furniture onboard HMS Victory or when chasing the French Fleet.

‘We can imagine them being signed and sealed, despatched by boat, carried by ship and coach to the tables of his friends and family.

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‘Through the letters we can hear Nelson’s voice in his own words; his emotions and energy always near the surface, as he jumps from the personal to the professional all in one sentence.’

The Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation is a public benefit cultural institution established in spring 2007 by Panos Laskaridis and Marilena Laskaridis. It works to promote Greek culture and especially Greek letters and historical and nautical research. The exhibition marks the first fruits of the foundation’s work with the museum.

As president of the foundation Panos Laskaridis added: ‘During my postgraduate studies at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich, the only civilian student amongst Royal Navy officers, I quickly became infatuated with Nelson.

‘The Laskaridis Nelson Collection aims to bring to light Horatio Nelson not just as a dedicated officer and great leader of men at sea in peace and war but also as a man in love, with personal feelings and anxieties, that do not diminish by any measure his being one of the greatest naval heroes of all times.’

The exhibition, open now, which runs until April 16, 2023, has been timed to mark the 217th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar where Nelson defeated the French and Spanish navies before losing his own life.

The documents are part of a larger archive, and the full catalogue has been published on the exhibition website nmrn.org.uk.