Dr Sam Willis explores the many wounds that Nelson received in his life, as well as his fatal wound received at the Battle of Trafalgar. Sam speaks with Michael Crumplin, a retired consultant general and upper gastro-intestinal surgeon and Honrary Curator and Archivist at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Nelson was so damaged by a life of naval service it has been calculated that he would have received a total degree of disablement at 140% if assessed for war pension today: his right eye was damaged by flying earth at siege of Corsica in 1794; he developed a ‘fist-sized’ hernia when hit by flying timber at the battle of St Vincent in 1797; his arm was amputated after being hit by a musket ball at Tenerife, also in 1797; his forehead head was struck so hard, and cut so badly by flying debris at the battle of the Nile in 1798 that he thought he was gong to die. And then, at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 he was shot by a French marksman, the ball breaking his spine and puncturing a lung.

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