'Thank God I have done my duty’

This exhibition commemorated the 200th anniversary, or bicentenary of the Naval Battle of Trafalgar, which took place off the coast of Cadiz, Spain on the 21st October 1805.  The victory was a breakthrough for Britain in the Napoleonic wars that had swept across Europe since 1789.

The French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, together with his revolutionary allies had conquered much of mainland Europe and was threatening to invade the British Isles.  Vice Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson led the British Royal Navy to triumph at Trafalgar and became one of the most celebrated national heroes of the nineteenth century.

Although victorious in battle, Lord Nelson was fatally wounded when a French musket-man shot him through his shoulder.  The bullet punctured his lung, split his spine and lodged in the muscles of his back causing a long and painful death.  Lord Nelson died onboard his ship ‘HMS Victory’, comforted by the knowledge that the French and their allies had recently been defeated.

‘Thank God I have done my duty’, were reputedly Lord Nelson‘s last words.