Rear Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson by Lemuel Francis Abbott, 1800 © National Maritime Museum, London, Greenwich Hospital collection. Repro ID BHC2889 By the end of his life Nelson was entitled to wear the stars of four orders of knighthood, as well as two official gold medals. At that time, decorations and medals were not nearly as common as they are today and some of his contemporaries felt he looked slightly ridiculous. General Sir John Moore remarked: 'he looks more like a Prince of the Opera than the Conqueror of the Nile'.

Two medals which Nelson wore suspended from ribbons around his neck, were the King's Naval Gold Medals for the Battles of Cape St Vincent and the Nile. Among the first British named 'campaign' medals ever issued, these were very highly prized by their recipients since only a few were awarded. His main star or decoration was the British Order of the Bath, awarded to him in 1797 as a reward for his exploits at the Battle of Cape St Vincent.

By contrast, the three other decorations Nelson wore were all unusual. The Order of St Ferdinand and Merit was a Neapolitan order of knighthood created specially for Nelson and his Nile captains by King Ferdinand of Naples, because the existing Neapolitan orders of chivalry could be awarded only to Catholics. Similarly, the Turkish Order of the Crescent was also specially created for Nelson when the Sultan of Turkey wished to reward him after the Nile, but was unable to present any existing Turkish award to a Christian. The Order of St Joachim was a private German order of chivalry. When in full dress uniform Nelson wore the stars of all four orders fastened to the left breast of his coat. When in everyday or 'undress' uniform he wore sequin facsimiles sewn directly onto the coat.

From time to time, Nelson wore other items that contributed to his unusual appearance. His friend and prize agent Alexander Davison presented all those who had fought at the Nile with a privately-produced medallion, and Nelson often wore a gold version of it. Additionally, he occasionally wore jewelled miniatures of the King and Queen of Naples. But his most spectacular decoration was worn in his hat. The Sultan of Turkey presented him with a 'chelengk', or plume of triumph made of diamonds. Thirteen sprays represented the French ships at the Battle of the Nile and a large central diamond was mounted on a clockwork motor so that it rotated and sparkled as it caught the light.

Sadly little of this splendour has survived. Most of the medals and decorations were stolen from the Painted Hall in Greenwich Hospital in 1900, and the chelengk disappeared in a well-planned raid on the National Maritime Museum in 1951.

Part of the Nelson A to Z, Edited extracts taken from The Nelson Encyclopædia by Dr Colin White, Chatham Publishing London, 2002.