The Nelson Monument, 120 feet (37 m) tall on a granite base,^[1] stands on Portsdown Hill about 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Portsmouth Harbour on the south coast of England. It was the eventual outcome of a movement started during Horatio Nelson's lifetime to "perpetuate the glorious victories of the British Navy".^[2] By 1799 Nelson's prize agent Alexander Davison was able to use the Nelson name to spearhead a campaign^[3] to honour "Britain's naval glory and pre-eminence". It was, however, Nelson's death at Trafalgar, 21 October 1805, that galvanized the campaign.^[4]

A design for the monument by John Thomas Groves of the Board of Works was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1807,^[5] The monument is modelled on the Aksum Stele, Ethiopia: Groves was inspired by the findings in Aksum of Henry Salt who visited Ethiopia in 1805.^[6]

However, letters were written to The Times asking where the money Davison had raised had gone,^[7] but the £4050 he raised was never recovered.^[8] The final (and successful) attempt was paid for by the Navy itself.^[9] This time the fund's driving force, Captain Thomas Fremantle, adopted a more altruistic approach,^[10] and the monument commenced construction on 4 July 1807^[11] with the final checks to the inscription^[12] made just over a year later. The monument was rebuilt in 1899, but the bust is the original. The monument still serves as a navigation mark, used in compass corrections.

• Dedication
• Information board
• Summit, with bust of Nelson

Although very near the town of Fareham, the monument falls within the boundary of Winchester City Council.^[13] The adjacent Fort Nelson, Portsmouth, completed in 1871 as another Napoleon threatened England's south coast, is so named because of its proximity to the monument.^[14]