Nelson & His World

In the film Persuasion, an adaptation from Jane Austin‘s book, Captain Wentworth is dressed in his naval uniform during a private walk with friends in his free/leisure time. The film with Ciarán Hinds as captain Wentworth.

Nelson’s nephew George Matcham, wrote a letter to the Times saying:

During his (Nelson;s) intervals of leisure, in a little knot of relations and friends, he delighted in quiet conversations, through which occasionally ran an undercurrent of pleasantry, not unmixed with caustic wit, . …. In his plain suit of black, in which he alone recurs to my memory, he always looked what he was - a gentleman.

Where naval officers allowed to wear their uniform in leisure time, or only when they were in function as such?

And is it true that officers where always considered to be spies and executed as such, when they were captured not wearing their uniform, in an hostile country which they were at war with. It is mentioned in one of the Hornblower episodes.

Sylvia

As far as I am aware, there was no restriction on army or navy officers wearing their uniforms "off duty".

I do not believe that officers were "always to be considered" as a spy; indeed an officer was to be regarded as a gentleman, and expected to behave as such. It was not unusual in the 18th century for officers taken prisoner to live a restricted, but almost normal life, after giving his word that he would not attempt to escape etc. After capture it was common for an officer to be allowed to proceed independently to the place assigned for his confinement. This all changed I believe during the long Napoleonic Wars.

As for being executed for not being in uniform, and without any reason, then it is probably true that he could be taken for a spy - but why would an officer be in 'enemy' territory out of uniform? The obvious case would be the American officer, Nathan Hale, who was hanged when captured spying behind British lines during the American war of independence.

There is a passage in Jane Austen's 'Mansfield Park' when she comments on the wearing of uniform:

'William had obtained ten days leave of absence, to be given to Northamptonshire, and was coming, the happiest of lieutenants, because the latest made, to show his happiness and describe his uniform.

He came, and would have delighted to show his uniform there too, had not the cruel custom of the navy prohibited its appearance except on duty.'

She specifically says 'custom' and not 'rule' or 'regulation'. I wonder if not wearing uniform off duty was a social convention rather than a naval regulation?

There was,however, the occasion in France when Nelson and Ball were on half-pay, and Nelson dismissed Ball as 'a great coxcomb' for wearing epaulettes, not, at that time, part of official uniform. So presumably Ball was wearing uniform at the time of Nelson's comment, unless it was an affectation Nelson had remembered from the days when they were serving.

Jane Austen was meticulous about detail, though, and very familiar, through her brothers, with naval custom and practice, certainly when ashore. Many of the 'fictional' naval events in her novels are thinly disguised fact. However, 'Mansfield Park' wasn't publlished until 1814, so maybe the 'no uniform off duty' was a post-Nelson innovation.

Tycho and PhiloNauticus, thank you both for your information, it is much appreciated.

Sylvia