The Hindu : International / Globescan : Scions of Napoleon, Nelson meet

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Friday, Jul 30, 2004

International

International - Globescan

Scions of Napoleon, Nelson meet

London: In life, Horatio Nelson and Napoleon Bonaparte came no closer than a few sea miles, but they will meet next year in a major exhibition celebrating the bicentenary of the battle of Trafalgar. And, to mark the occasion, their hats and their descendants came together this week at the London shop where Nelson had his hats made. At the shop — James Lock & Co in St James's Street in central London — where Nelson settled his final bill on his last morning in England, the families of the two men mingled. There were two descendants of Napoleon, through a mistress: Hugo de Salis and his father Bernard, who managed to conceal his ancestry throughout 20 years in the navy. And there were two descendants of Nelson, through his mistress Lady Hamilton and their daughter Horatia: Anna Tribe and her daughter Mary Arthur. A private collector brought Napoleon's cocked hat from Paris — for which the insurance was enormous. And there were two of Nelson's hats: one, worn at the battle of Copenhagen in 1801, from the British National Maritime Museum, in Greenwich, east London, and another that has been with his effigy in Westminster cathedral since his death in 1805. —

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