Lord Nelson - A Health Report

After blogging about Kennedy and Washington's health, I decided to look into another historical favorite of mine,  1st Viscount Lord Horatio Nelson, Admiral of the British Royal Naval Fleet during the Napoleonic Wars.

Here again was someone that though a great hero, suffered from poor health all his life. He was considered puny and of slight stature when he was a boy. His uncle stated that he couldn't understand why anyone would suggest Horatio for naval service.

At sixteen he was a midshipman in the HMS

Seahorse in the East Indies, and contracted malaria. He suffered recurring bouts of the disease. The climate was conducive, and he was seriously debilitated. Not too much later, about 1786, he is thought to have gotten cholera, but symptoms suggested typhoid. Here again, he suffered miserably. Doctors prescribed a strict dietary treatment along with therapeutic baths at Bath, drinking of the waters there. Though he rallied once again, these illnesses left lasting damage. By 1790 it is said he suffered from gout.

Of course he also suffered many wounds from battle, and their resulting pains and on-going difficulties. In 1794 he lost his eye to gun shot that sent splinters into his face. Later at the Battle at Teneriffe in 1797, he lost his arm. Amputation procedures of the times were rather crude. His face held many bruises and scarring from cuts, and he began suffering angina at age 38.  Several concussions left him in what condition we would now consider a pre-mature senility or dementia. Think of the recent reports of NFL stars; the recognition of the high price to be paid for repeated head injury.

Of course, eventually Horatio lost his life at the famed Battle of Trafalgar, in 1805. He is England's greatest hero, stopping Napoleon's advance and ending the war. Throughout his life, he battled on, never giving up. He is the stuff of legend!

Nelson once wrote of himself, later in life,  "Wounds received by Lord Nelson: His eye in Corsica, His belly off Cape St. Vincent, His arm at Teneriffe, His head in Egypt....Tolerable for one war!"