Honor Horatio Hornblower

It is oft repeated that C S Forester's 'Horatio Hornblower' is a conglomerate of Horatio Nelson and Lord Cochrane. This, I have discovered by accident, is incorrect. The first novel "The Happy Return" is wholly unique in Forester's Hornblower sagas, however, on becoming successfully famous by the popularity of Hornblower, Forester needed a model, with a requisite 'manifest destiny' - and that model is in fact Baronet Admiral Sir Edmund Burke Nagle, Admiral of the Blue, Aide de Camp to the Prince Regent/George IV, commodore of the Royal Yacht's Squadron, Commander in Chief of f the RN stations of Newfoundland, Leith, Geurnsey, and the Sussex Sea Fencibles, KCB GCH and Groom of His Majesty's Bedchamber. Nagle served with Edward Pellew from early 1771 until 1825, and was a friend of George IV , his court buffoon, as well as his premier butler. Nagles was also friends of George II, and William IV, and a well known associate of the Duke of Wellington. Like Hornblower, Nagle was an orphan, and was a principle participant in the Quiberon Bay Invasion of 1795. He also, like Hornblower, married a woman named Mary ( although HH married Maria) and was also introduced to the Czar and Czarovich of Russia , as was Hornblower. All of Nagle's career along with his most famous naval cousins Charles Edmund Nugent and a younger lieutenant Edmand Nagle are the primary models Forester used , uncredited , to fabricate Horatio Hornblower.

Honor Horatio Hornblower? Honor never blew her horn. I hope she blew his. If she had lived when he had lived, he would have blew hers.


The Germans have a saying. Paraphrased, “He who does not toot his own horn, his horn does not get tooted.”

But a lot of people tooted Honor's. And a lot of people tooted his. I guess if you are good at what you do, people will blow your horn for you.