Slebech and the Hamiltons

Photo©Nigel Summerley

Pembrokeshire has a curious connection with one of the most notorious sex scandals in history.

The story involves the menage a trois that included Horatio Nelson, Emma Hamilton and her husband Sir William Hamilton.

Nelson was a national hero, Sir William was British ambassador to Naples, and Emma was renowned as a socialite given to giving dramatic performances wearing very little in the way of clothing.

The controversial episode didn’t end well for any of the three.

But Sir William’s first wife, Catherine, was quite different from Emma – and she came from Slebech in Pembrokeshire. She was an accomplished harpsichord player, so much so that when she went to Italy with her husband, she is said to have met and played for an appreciative Mozart.

A decade later, in 1782, she died and her body was brought back to be buried at Slebech parish church. “I must for ever feel the loss of the most amiable the most gentle and virtuous companion that ever man was blessed with,” said the bereaved Sir William.

Photo©Nigel Summerley

But he had a nephew who had other plans; the nephew wanted to be rid of his mistress, Emma, and shunted her off to Naples in the hope that she would hook up with his widowed uncle. The plan worked and 60-year-old Sir William ended up marrying the 26-year-old Emma.

All appeared to go well, until Nelson pitched up at Naples. Although the love of the egotistical admiral’s life seemed to be mainly himself, he was also smitten with Emma. With Sir William either too decent or too naive, the end result was a threesome in which he was very much on the sidelines. The trio even ended up living together in Naples and then in England.

Before the vainglorious Nelson was killed at Trafalgar and Emma became persona non grata, Sir William had died in 1803.

But the cuckolded statesman was, at his request, also buried at the church in Slebech to be near his first and much-missed wife.

Sadly the church at Slebech is now out of bounds to visitors. As you can see from the pictures here, it is derelict, fenced off and impossible to get to. I walked around the perimeter in the hope of finding a way in, but there is none. It is almost as if there was a curse on the Hamiltons and, by implication, on their last resting place.

The church windows are broken Photo©Nigel Summerley

Definitely no entry Photo©Nigel Summerley