Naval hero Admiral Nelson to be reimagined as gay icon for new museum event
ADMIRAL Nelson will be reimagined as a gay icon in an event at the National Maritime Museum.
The naval hero — celebrated for defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 — will be “looked at through a queer lens”, organisers say.
The Queer History Club Night event will consider the “men who loved him”, including close friend Vice-Admiral Thomas Hardy, who kissed Lord Nelson’s forehead and hands when he died aboard HMS Victory.
Nelson’s last words are said to have been: “Kiss me, Hardy.”
The event also covers the love triangle between Lord Nelson, diplomat Sir William Hamilton and his wife Lady Emma Hamilton, .
But biographer Lord Andrew Roberts said Nelson’s heterosexuality was vigorous and widely discussed at the time.
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He told “It’s certainly bad history.
“The ‘men who loved him’ did so because he was a quintessential military leader, not because they fancied him.”
The museum, in Greenwich, South East London, insisted: “This is not about questioning Nelson’s sexuality but how men within a male environment establish friendship and devotion.”