Nelson: Britannia's God of War (95 page)

12 Nelson’s uniform coat: complete with the hole caused by the fatal bullet on the left  shoulder, this remains the most potent relic of his life.

13 Trafalgar Day 1905: the Navy League has dressed the column and a small crowd has braved the London smog to commemorate the centenary!.

14 Benjamin West’s
The Apotheosis of Nelson
of 1807, with Nelson posed as the dead  Christ, carried in the arms of Victory to a mourning Minerva while Neptune watches. The  signal ‘England expects’ gives the picture a motto. As a celebration of the cult of the hero,  this combination of sacred and profane imagery was irreligious, if not blasphemous.