Nelson's Undress Coat with the hole in the left shoulder made by the musket ball that killed him at the Battle of Trafalgar ©National Maritime Museum, London, Greenwich Hospital collection. Repro ID: B9701-2 This is a standard Royal Naval undress coat of the pattern in use from 1795-1812. What makes it unique is that it was worn by Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. There is a bullet hole on the left shoulder, close to the epaulette. The damage to the epaulette itself is also apparent. There are bloodstains on the tails and left sleeve, which is probably that of Nelson's secretary John Scott, killed earlier in the action.

The coat is made from blue wool cloth with a stand-up collar and button-back lapels. Nelson's four orders of chivalry – Knight of the Bath, Order of the Crescent, Order of Ferdinand & Merit and Order of St Joachim – are sewn to the left-hand side of the coat and over the edge of the lapel so that it could not be unbuttoned. Debate continues today as to whether or not these orders had made Nelson an obvious high-profile target for French snipers.

Two hours into the action at about 13.15 hrs, Nelson and captain Thomas Masterman Hardy were pacing the quarterdeck of the Victory. Hardy, realizing that the Admiral was no longer by his side turned to see him on his knees, supporting himself on his left arm before it gave way and he collapsed at very the spot where John Scott had only recently been killed. Nelson had himself become one of many casualties caused by marksmen placed high up in the rigging of the French ship Redoutable. ‘They have done for me at last,’ Nelson told his captain. ‘I hope not,’ answered Hardy to which Nelson replied: ‘Yes. My backbone is shot through’.

Captain Hardy later returned the coat to Emma Hamilton in accordance with Nelson’s wishes. Lionel Goldsmith, a young neighbour, visited Emma towards the end of 1805 and saw it lying on the bed beside her. Nelson’s brother William, later First Earl Nelson and his son Horatio, wanted to display the relic at their new country residence, Trafalgar House, but a letter found in the pocket caused them to agree that the family should lend it to Lady Hamilton during her lifetime.

In the event she surrendered it to Joshua Jonathan Smith to discharge a debt, just before she moved to France in 1814 a few months before her death. HRH Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband, purchased the coat for £150 from Smith’s widow, through Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, editor of Nelson’s letters and dispatches, and presented it to Greenwich Hospital in 1845. It became a star attraction as crowds flocked to see it. The coat is now in the collection of the National Maritime Museum where it continues to fascinate, the hole left by the fatal musket ball a poignant reminder of Nelson’s death at his moment of victory.

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