Horatio Nelson’s sexuality is once again under the spotlight after a museum in Liverpool, UK, proclaimed the British naval hero was “queer.”
Curators at the state-funded Walker Art Gallery decided that his contested final words “Kiss me, Hardy” were enough to include Nelson in a “Queer relationships” collection. The works in question are Daniel Maclise’s The Death of Nelson (1859-1864) and Benjamin West’s painting of the same name, made in 1806.
The mortally wounded admiral is believed to have uttered the famous phrase to his fellow officer Captain Thomas Hardy just before he died at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The British fleet, under Nelson’s command, defeated the combined French and Spanish navies. Hardy apparently acquiesced, kissing his admiral on the forehead and hands.
“Historians have speculated about the exact nature of the relationship between Hardy and Nelson,” the gallery posted online. “Regardless of the truth, for many, Nelson’s famous request is symbolic of the sometimes hidden queer history of life at sea. Whether or not their relationship was sexual remains unknown, but their friendship is reflective of the close relationships formed between men at sea. Intimate relationships, both sexual and platonic, could develop between those on board.”
The Walker Art Gallery has also added paintings of Nelson’s death at Trafalgar to an online article about the “history of LGBTQ+ love” and a broader collection of “love and relationships” artworks.
However, not everyone is happy about Nelson being branded “queer.”
They include the British advocacy group and charity LGB Alliance, which argues that the rights of same-sex attracted individuals are threatened by the inclusion of trans people. “We already have enough LGB heroes from history, without pretending that straight people were gay,” its CEO, Kate Barker, said in a statement. “Rather than ‘queering’ people who can’t answer back, museums should be celebrating all the gay, lesbian and bisexual Britons who achieved brilliant things – despite living in eras far less tolerant than our own.”
Long time The Spectator columnist Ross Clark has also questioned the gallery’s decision. “It makes this claim based on the nothing but the old chestnut of Nelson’s supposedly last words ‘kiss me, Hardy’ uttered to Vice Admiral Sir Thomas Hardy,” he wrote. “That seems to be that: enough to suppose that were Nelson still alive now he would be bopping away happily in Portsmouth’s gay bars and shacked up with Hardy in a waterfront penthouse overlooking the Solent.”
He added that, “To be fair, I guess no one can ever be sure that Nelson wasn’t gay. Maybe he wasn’t at Trafalgar at all and the painting was just a ruse to disguise the fact that he died while still in port, frolicking in a steamy sauna with his men. But I would say that the evidence we have makes it somewhat unlikely. Not only was Nelson married, but when he did fancy something on the side it tended to be with Emma, Lady Hamilton. As for being gay, absolutely the only thing we have is his comment to Hardy, which, like so many last words, is disputed in any case.”
The Telegraph also weighed in, writing that “There is no evidence that Nelson was anything other than heterosexual. He was married to Frances Nelson, and conducted a scandalous affair with the married Lady Emma Hamilton who he talked of during his dying moments.”
Last year, the admiral was included in a “Queer History Night” at London’s National Maritime Museum. It decided to “examine him through a queer lens” in a presentation titled “#NELSONFEST” to mark LBGTQ+ History Month. The Telegraph reported at the time that “The talk organised by The Queer History Club will consider the ‘men who loved him,’ according to promotional material which has… since been removed from the museum’s website.”
The move also prompted a backlash. Lord Roberts, a historian whose book “Leadership in War” documents Nelson’s life, told the paper: “This smacks of sheer desperation by the National Maritime Museum. Admiral Nelson’s heterosexuality was so vigorous as to be a subject of intense discussion amongst everyone who knew him, so to try to drag him into a Queer History Night sounds bizarre. It’s certainly bad history. The ‘men who loved him’ did so because he was a quintessential military leader who fought actions of annihilation, not because they fancied him.”