Admiral Nelson’s illnesses and injuries

Abstract

Horatio Nelson is one of the greatest English heroes. His key exploits at the battles of the Nile and Trafalgar, which led to Britain’s maritime supremacy, are well known and celebrated in the 5.5m statue at the summit of Nelson’s column in Trafalgar Square, London. The statue also showcases his most famous injuries, the injury to his right eye and arm amputation. However, as well as these he had a number of other battle injuries and afflictions including recurrent malaria, yellow fever, scurvy, tuberculosis and dysentery, which, although he bore with stoicism, may have affected his professional performance at different times in his career. The exact cause of his death was probably a combination of blood loss, lung injury and spinal shock.