Portsmouth Historic Dockyard: Lord Nelson's intimate letters to go on display

Visitors can read a letter from Lord Nelson to lover Emma Hamilton from on board HMS Victory in May 1805

Lord Nelson's intimate letters will be displayed to mark Trafalgar Day.

A new exhibition at the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard will share 30 rare and previously unpublished documents.

The notes are from the peak of Nelson's fame and go up to a few days before his death at the Battle of Trafalgar.

There are also personal items including a betrothal ring belonging to Nelson's mistress, miniature portraits, and a meat platter from HMS Victory.

"Written with his left hand, after losing his right arm at the Battle of Santa Cruz, the letters are peppered with fascinating insights from everyday gossip and anecdotes to historic events, and breaking news of the Battle of the Nile," a museum spokeswoman said.

A mourning locket with Nelson's hair beside a letter to James Saumerez before the Battle of Trafalgar

Visitors to the exhibition, Nelson: In His Own Words, can read a letter to his lover Emma Hamilton in the days leading up to the birth of their daughter.

"My Dear Lady Hamilton, When I consider that this day 9 months was your birthday, and that although we had a gale of wind, yet I was happy and sung 'Come Cheer up Fair Emma' even the thought compared with this day makes me melancholy, my heart somehow is sunk within me."

The exhibition opens on Friday, for Trafalgar Day, and will run until 16 April 2023.

It has been timed to mark the 217th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, where Nelson defeated the French and Spanish navies before losing his own life.