STORY BEHIND GREAT LOVERS OF YESTERDAY Nelson.... and Lady Hamilton

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 44, 10 May 1935, Page 56

STORY BEHIND GREAT LOVERS OF YESTERDAY Nelson.... and Lady Hamilton

IRECTLY under the dome of D St. Paul’s Cathedral in Lon‘don lies the body of Horatio Nelson, HEngland’s immortal sailor. In an unmarked grave in Calais lies HPmma, Lady Hamilton. But for her he would rest in Westminster Abbey. But.for him she would rest doubtless under a marble slab dated and titled. They were two not born to rest. Their graves become them. _ In 1793 Emma was the wife of Sir William Hamilton, English Ambassador to the: court of Naples. Daughter . of -a blacksmith. and a. cook, she had arrived at her’ lofty station by cruel ways. Miserably poor and ‘so beautiful thaf people turned on the London. streets to stare as she passed, it was not strange that fate should come upon her early. At Sixteen she had had her first lover. Long after, ‘she wrote Romney the painter, from so many of whose canvases her loveliness still looks out deathless: "Through distress my virtue was vanquished but. my sense of virtue was not overcome." Charles Greville, a young man of fashion, was the direct though certainly not intentional cause of Bmma's becoming Lady Hamilton. Sir William was his uncle. Greville, having been for some time Hmma’s protector, found himself in need of money. For a not too delicately-veiled consideration he made her.over-she all unsuspectingto the elderly dilettante. The unpredictable happened. Sir William married. her. The cook’s daughter became an ambassadress, and in the course of time the favoured intimate of the Neapolitan Queen. Nelson’s past had no such chequered design. ‘For several years before he sailed into the harbour of Naples he liad been eating the heart out on halfpay in a Norfolk village. He was thirty-five and had been six years martied to a widow with one son. And yet his fame was unachieved. So they met... . The Captain and the Lady. -.. and for a few days were much in each other’s company, They were not to meet again for five years, Five years later Nelson lay again olf Naples. He was in command now of a British Fleet-Rear Admiral of the . Blue. .And. for his brilliant part in the ‘pattle of St, Vincent tbe year’ hefore created Kuight Commander of the Bath. He was appronehing an impor tant crisis in N's Ute Renaparte’s ex: pedition ‘had slipped oul, of Toulon and vanished. .None knew where the’ Cor: Sican would strike next. ~All Kurope

waited shivering .before the threat of his blow. Nelson asked only to meet him. By way of securing that meeting it was essential that Nelson be allowed to revictual and rewater his ships in South Italian ports. But the kingdom of Naples was neutral. However much it might secretly hope for a British victory it feared to incur the

displeasure of. the French. The King was reluctant. Emma went to the Queen. In a few hours Nelson was in possession of a letter giving him all he sought. Upon which he sailed in pursuit of the French. He felt they must have gone to Bgypt, and went there only to find the harbours empty. He doubled back and revictualled at Syracuse, still in the dark as to the whereabouts of his enemy. Fortunate that radio did not then exist. for Nelson would, at this stage. most likely have been relieved of his command. Off the southern const of Greece he got news at last that the French Fleet had been "ighted weeks before. heading for the Mast We crowded sail and found the French at the mouth of the Nile, where he had looked for them in. the first pluce, Although it. was near sunset,

he fell upon them and in an engagement lasting all night, triumphed magnificently ...the greatest victory which, up to that time, had ever been won by the British Navy. ° Let the codicil to his will give credit where credit is due: "The. British Fleet under. my command could never have returned a second time to Hgypt had not Lady ‘Hamilton’s influence with the Queen of Naples caused letters to be wrote-of the Governor of Syracuse ... we put ‘into Syracuse and received every supply .... went to BWgypt and destroyed the French Fleet." All Europe rang with the name of Nelson of the Nile. It was the first great check to the menace of Napoleon. Almost as important, India was saved. "If it had not been for you English," said Napoleon years later, "I should have been Hmperor of the East, but wherever there is water to float a ship we are sure to find you in the way." Nelson went back to Naples.. He iad lost an arm. He had lost an eye. e was recovering from a fever and from a wound in his forehead received at the battle of the Nile. Naples gave him a mad ovation. BHmma, with Sir William and the King, went out on the royal yacht to meet the Vanguard. Nelson’s flagship. She had not seen him while he was lying off port waiting for the letter from the Queen. She had not seen him since the days when he was only Captain Nelson. When she set foot upon his deck and came face to face with him she fainted. She had always been in love with glory. It stood béfore her in tortured: but indomitable flesh. Nelson spent three weeks refitting his battered ships. during which tims he lived with the Hamilitons.’ It was then he and Pmma must have begun to realise what way they were going. She became his companion, his amanuensis, his devoted, untiring go-between in the Neapolitan court. Her courage, her passionate energy, her ardent patriotism went hand in glove with his. What followed was inevitable. England kept Nelson in the Mediterranean, and he and Emma became lovers, Never. any balf measures for either of them. From then to the hour of his death at th battle of Trafalgar, in the cockpit the thundering, shnddering H.M.S. Victory Nelson. never wavered in: his love. Emma never for the space of a heart-beat wavered in hers. (Continued on page 58.)-

Great Love of Nelson and Lady Hamilton

(Continued from page 56.) His cold, greedy wife refused to divorce him, so though he called Emma bis Guardian Angel and the officers of hig flagship drank a nightly toast -to her, he was never able to make her his wife. They paid dearly for their outflawed happiness. But’ Nelson’s last writing before Trafalgar was to Emma: "I will take care that my name shall be ever most dear to you." Almost his last words, gasping his life away: "Take care of my poor Lady Hamilton, Hardy." The barge that bore his body from xreenwich to Whitehall on the last voyage ‘of all had Hmma’s portrait painted in the stern. Saying goodbye to her on his way to death he told her: "If there were more Emmas there would be more Nelsons." ' He might-who knows?-have counted Westminster well lost. % x % Such is the charm of romance back

of the scenes in the lives of most, renowned men. It is of such: material as this, that’ the romance of "Robert Clive and" his’ beloved ‘Marguerite, is. built. This tender love story, and other. adventures, are beautifully presented in United Artists’ new 20th Century production, "Clive of India." Ronald Colman.portrays Clive, with Loretta Young as Marguerite.