Correspondence, 1942-1968

Incudes envelope containing correspondence with Hugh Nelson-Ward.

Related materials: see RMG Rference MNT0010 Portrait of Reverend Hugh [Herbert Edward] Nelson-Ward.

Administrative / biographical background
Hugh Nelson-Ward (1863-1952) was one of the grandchildren of Horatia Nelson-Ward, Nelson's daughter by Lady Hamilton: in 1822 she married the Reverend Philip Ward (who later changed the family name to Nelson-Ward) and they had a large family. Their eldest child was the Reverend Horatio Nelson Ward (1822-1888), who from 1853 was Rector of Radstock, Somerset, though he only formally changed his own name to Nelson-Ward by deed-poll in 1881, the year of his mother's death. Hugh in turn was his third son and fourth child (of five). He became Rector of Newdigate, Surrey, 1899 -1906 and Rector of Wicken, Northants, 1909-1928. He never married, inherited a family collection of Nelson material (to which he added), and eventually presented most to the National Maritime Museum as a family gift on condition it be displayed in a special 'Nelson-Ward Room', and in memory of his grandmother, Horatia. This was done from 1939 and again after post-war reopening in 1946 but eventually became impracticable as a permanent feature although still acknowledged in the 'Merton' bay of the Museum's Nelson gallery installed in the 1970s, and which lasted until the early 1990s.