Born "Emily Lyon" in 1765 at Swan Cottage, Ness, she was the daughter of a Wirral blacksmith who died soon after her birth. By all accounts she was an exceptionally beautiful woman. In her teens she was sent to London to work as a nursery-maid but her looks quickly won her fame and she became a celebrated model for fashionable painters most notably, George Romney who painted numerous portraits of her. Emily "Hart" became mistress to Sir Harry Featherstonhough and later, Charles Greville, and was seduced by a naval officer whose child she bore.

Horatio Nelson "I have always been a quarter of an hour before my time, and it has made a man of me." On October 21, 1805, Horatio Nelson, England's greatest sailor, and hero of a hundred and twenty fights before he was thirty-eight, paid with his life for the victory of Trafalgar over the combined fleets of France and Spain. Scorning dangers that had already left cruel marks on a frail body, he went into action in Trafalgar wearing his admiral's uniform, a target for sharpshooters in the masts of enemy vessels. Risking his displeasure, his officers had asked him to change his dress, or at least to cover his decorations. But Nelson had won them with honour and, reminding his officers of this, said he would wear them till with honour he died. From the Victory he opened fire on the Bucentaure, commanded by Admiral Villeneuve, and then on La Santa Trinidad and the Redoutable, when a musket shot from the top of the latter struck him in the upper breast and plunged into his spine. Though mortally wounded, he calmly gave orders till victory was complete. But with the enemy vanquished and Admiral Villeneuve a prisoner, Nelson could face his end. "I have done my duty, thank God for that", were his last words.

Just before the battle of Trafalgar Nelson sent a famous signal to his fleet:"England expects every man will do his duty" Nelson's own last words were "Thank God I have done my duty" Because of the distance from Trafalgar to England, Nelson's body was placed in a cask of brandy to preserve it for the trip.