Over the centuries Britons have been presented with hundreds of faces of the their most celebrated naval hero before he went into his last battle.

Now, after months of research, Bath sculptor Robert Hornyold-Strickland has come up with what he hopes is a definitive portrait of how Lord Nelson looked on the eve of Trafalgar.

Second Sea Lord Vice-Admiral Alan Massey unveiled the life-size bronze bust in the wardroom of the officers' mess, at HMS Nelson in Portsmouth, to mark the 250th anniversary of Nelson's birth at Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, on September 29, 1758.

The sculptor, the son of a naval officer, lives in Lyncombe Vale and said he wanted to look beyond the usual romanticised and flattering vision of the man who gave Britain its greatest naval victory and capture how the 47-year-old looked before he was shot by a sniper on the deck of his ship.

He took expert advice and used a recently authenticated mask of Nelson produced in Vienna in 1800 to come up with a more mature and less handsome Nelson than many of the sculptures and paintings produced at the time.

The new bust shows the middle-aged war veteran with a queue, or ponytail, held in place by a piece of cloth tied in a bow. He has his trademark hat but his hair is worn low over his right eyebrow to conceal a scar from an injury from the Battle of the Nile in 1798.

"Having satisfied myself that the mask was the best likeness I could get, I used it to depict Nelson a few years later, on the eve of Trafalgar in 1805," he said.

But just in case he was left in any doubt, the great man's descendents were on hand to make sure he got the hero's facial features right.

Nelson's oldest living descendent, Anna Tribe, from Raglan in Monmouthshire, has inherited her ancestor's profile and is living proof that while everything else is open to interpretation, the Nelson nose was strong enough to survive 250 years after his death.

Yesterday she was in Portsmouth for the unveiling of the life-size bronze that was commissioned by an anonymous donor to create a realistic portrait of how the naval hero would have looked when he set sail to take on the combined French and Spanish fleet.

Anna Millicent Horatia Fitzroy Tribe has previously said: "Noses don't develop fully until people are a little bit older, but it always comes out in the end in our family,"

The unveiling of the statue was one of many events held up and down the country to celebrate the landmark anniversary of the man who saved the Forest of Dean by demanding more oaks were planted for shipbuilding.

The Nelson Museum in Monmouth is holding an exhibition of letters revealing Nelson's relationship with his father and siblings and the torn loyalties caused by his affair with LadyHamilton.

In Exeter, a collection of letters written by Nelson to Prime Minister Henry Addington went on display for the first time as part of a new £1.6 million display at the Devon Records Office.

Nelson was made Freeman in 1801 and in one letter penned on October 6, 1803, two years before his death, he speculates about whether he will survive the French wars.

He wrote: "We have no reason to fear, till the Battle is over I hope to write to You No More/whether I survive it or not, my name shall never bring a blush on the cheeks of my friends. May God Bless You My King & Country."

Nelson was the sixth of 11 children. He joined the Navy at the age of 12, became a Captain at 20, rising quickly through the ranks to Vice-Admiral before falling in his hour of victory over the combined French and Spanish fleets in the Battle of Trafalgar.

In his home village of Burnham Thorpe, locals marked the anniversary of the man who rid Britons of the fear of French rule under Napoleon with a special pub dinner.

The Lord Nelson, the village pub changed its name from The Plough in 1798 in honour of Nelson's victory at The Battle of the Nile, has a menu that includes Horatio's Salad and Victory Tartlet.