The coat left bloodstained and bullet-torn after Horatio Nelson was fatally wounded by a French sharpshooter at the battle of Trafalgar is to make a posthumous incursion deep into the heart of former enemy territory, reports The Guardian.
Nelson's undress uniform, which he changed into as his fleet sailed into battle almost 208 years ago, is to be loaned to the Musée de l'Armée in Paris as part of its forthcoming exhibition on Napoleon and Europe.
From the end of March Les Invalides complex visitors will be able to see the handiwork of the sniper who fired from the mizzen top of the French ship Redoubtable at around 1.15pm on 21 October 1805: the bullet hole in the left shoulder of the coat and the smears of blood that still stain its tails and sleeve.
Quintin Colville, curator of naval history at the National Maritime Museum, which is lending the uniform to the Musée de l'Armée, describes it as the pinnacle of the Greenwich museum's collection.
"It is absolutely an icon of British history and I don't think it has a competitor," he said. "It's never been loaned by the NMM before and hasn't left these shores since it returned from Trafalgar with Nelson's body, so, as you can imagine, every possible precaution has been taken."
In its stead, the museum will display Nelson's full dress uniform, not displayed in public for more than a decade.
Read more of this article from The Guardian.