author
William Beatty
1773–1842
Best remembered as the naval surgeon who attended Admiral Nelson at Trafalgar, he built a remarkable career in the Royal Navy and later became a respected medical figure in London. His life links frontline wartime medicine with one of the most famous moments in British naval history.
1 Audiobook
Authentic Narrative of the Death of Lord Nelson
by William Beatty
About the author
Born in Derry in April 1773, William Beatty joined the Royal Navy as a surgeon's mate while still a young man. He served through the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, gaining hard experience at sea before becoming surgeon aboard HMS Victory.
Beatty is most closely associated with the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, where he treated the wounded during the fighting and attended Admiral Horatio Nelson after he was shot. He later wrote an influential account of Nelson's final hours, which helped shape how that historic scene was remembered.
His career did not end with Trafalgar. Beatty went on to hold important naval medical posts, was knighted, and became a Fellow of the Royal Society. He died in London in 1842, remembered both for his service in battle and for the written record he left behind.