structural:reformatting, quality:corruption
Early life

Horatio Nelson was born on 29 September 1758, at a rectory in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, England; the sixth of eleven children of the Reverend Edmund Nelson and his wife, Catherine Suckling. He was named " Horatio " after his godfather Horatio Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford (1723–1809), the first cousin of his maternal great-grandmother Anne Turner (1691–1768). Horatio Walpole was a nephew of Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, the de facto first prime minister of Great Britain. Nelson retained a strong Christian faith throughout his life.

Nelson's uncle Maurice Suckling was a high-ranking naval officer, and is believed to have had a major impact on Nelson's life.

Catherine Suckling lived in the village of Barsham, Suffolk, and married the Reverend Edmund Nelson at Beccles Church, Suffolk, in 1749.

Nelson attended Paston Grammar School, North Walsham, until he was 12 years old, and also attended King Edward VI's Grammar School in Norwich. His naval career began on 1 January 1771, when he reported to the newly commissioned third-rate HMS Raisonnable as an ordinary seaman and coxswain under his maternal uncle, Captain Maurice Suckling, who commanded the vessel. Shortly after reporting aboard, Nelson was appointed a midshipman, and began officer training. Early in his service, Nelson discovered that he experienced seasickness, a chronic complaint that he experienced for the rest of his life.