Thomas Foley ( Royal Navy officer ) Admiral Sir Thomas Foley GCB ( 1757 – 9 January 1833 ) was a Royal Navy officer and " Hero of the Battle of the Nile " . Naval career . He was the second son of John Foley of Narberth , Pembrokeshire , a landowner , and the nephew of Captain Thomas Foley , who accompanied George Anson , 1st Baron Anson on his voyage around the world . He entered the Royal Navy in 1770 , and , during his time as midshipman , saw a good deal of active service in the West Indies against American privateers . Promoted lieutenant in 1778 , he served under Admiral Keppel ( afterwards Viscount ) and Sir Charles Hardy in the Channel , and with Rodney ' s squadron was present at the defeat of De Langara off Cape St Vincent in 1780 , and at the relief of Gibraltar . Still under Rodney ' s command , he went out to the West Indies , and took his part in the operations which culminated in the victory of 12 April 1782 . In the French Revolutionary War he was engaged from the first . As flag - captain to Admiral John Gell , and afterwards to Sir Hyde Parker , Foley took part in the siege of Toulon in 1793 , the action of Golfe Jouan in 1794 , and the two fights off Toulon on the 13th of April and the 13th of July 1795 . At St Vincent he was flag - captain to the second in command on " Britannia " . After the battle he was transferred to the " Goliath " ( 74 ) , in which he was sent out in the following year to reinforce Nelson ' s fleet in the Mediterranean . The part played by the " Goliath " in the " Battle of the Nile " was brilliant . She led the squadron round the French van , and this manoeuvre contributed not a little to the result of the day . Whether this was done by Foley ' s own initiative , or intended by Horatio Nelson , has been a matter of controversy ( see Journal of the Royal United Service Institution , 1885 , p . 916 ) . His next important service was with Nelson in the Baltic . At the beginning of 1801 , Nelson was promoted to Vice Admiral of the Blue and after a few months , he took part as the second in command in the Battle of Copenhagen . The " Elephant " carried Nelson ' s flag and Foley acted as his chief - of - staff . During the action Nelson ' s commander , Sir Hyde Parker , who believed that the Danish fire was too strong , signaled for him to break off the action . Nelson ordered that the signal be acknowledged but not repeated . Legend has it that Nelson turned to his flag captain and said : " " You know , Foley , I only have one eye - I have the right to be blind sometimes " and then holding his telescope to his blind eye said " I really do not see the signal ! " " Nelson ' s action was approved in retrospect . Foley was one of Nelson ' s " Band of Brothers " . Nelson himself was a sea - officer par excellence . Yet there were many who struggled , suffered and were wounded as often as he . This could not help but develop a close relationship among the men . Nelson himself was very aware of the brotherhood which had arisen . In his biography of Nelson , David Howarth makes this clear : " " . . . Nelson ' s famous phrase , " I had the happiness to command a band of brothers ' . . . After his first great victory , Nelson called his captains ' my darling children ' , and none was the least embarrassed by that . Under Jervis , the captains of the Mediterranean fleet were becoming a brotherhood , bonded by skill , experience , mutual respect and a common cause . Maybe they had not thought of it in that way before ; but from about this time they all did , and Nelson most of all . And the concept - so suitable to his nature - became an important , conscious element in his conduct of the war . " " An amusing illustration of the affection Nelson inspired in his captains , and of the half maternal care they exercised over the fragile and stunted body of their famous leader , is supplied by a letter from Nelson himself to Ball , written from Kioge Bay in 1801 . He was racked with the Baltic cold , and wroth , as was common with him , with the still chillier winds which blew from the Admiralty Board : " " But , " " he says , " " all in the fleet are so truly kind to me that I should be a wretch not to cheer up . Foley has put me under a regimen of milk at four in the morning ; Murray has given me lozenges ; Hardy is as good as ever , and all have proved their desire to keep my mind easy . " " That picture of one sea veteran administering warm milk to his admiral at four o ' clock in the morning is amusing enough ; but it shows more effectively than graver things could do the feeling Nelson inspired in his captains . Ill - health obliged Foley to decline Nelson ' s offer ( made when on the point of starting for the Battle of Trafalgar ) of the post of Captain of the Fleet . Therefore it was Foley ' s fellow " brother " Thomas Hardy who was present at Nelson ' s death . From 1808 to 1815 , Foley commanded in the Downs from his flagship , and at the peace was made KCB . Sir Thomas Foley rose to be full admiral and GCB . He died while serving as Commander - in - Chief , Portsmouth in 1833 . Marriage . He was married on 31 Jul 1802 to Lady Lucy Anne FitzGerald ( 1771 – 1851 ) . She was the youngest surviving daughter of James FitzGerald , 1st Duke of Leinster and Lady Emily Lennox . Her mother was the great - granddaughter of Charles II , King of England , Scotland and Ireland and his mistress Louise de Kérouaille , Duchess of Portsmouth . Lucy was the favorite sister of Lord Edward FitzGerald , one of the ill - fated leaders of the Irish Rebellion of 1798 , and was herself an active participant in the rebellion . She worked as a conduit , clandestinely transmitting letters between the Revolutionary Committee in Dublin and their agents in Paris . A biographer of Lord Edward wrote of Lucy that she “ " most closely resembled him ( Edward ) in her strong sense of the ludicrous and her passionate love for justice . " ” She wrote in 1798 of her hope for Irish liberation in an address to the Irish nation that wasn ’ t published until many years later : " Irishmen , Countrymen , it is Edward FitzGerald ' s sister who addresses you : it is a woman but that woman is his sister : she would therefore die for you as he did . . . Yes , this is the moment , the precious moment which must either stamp with Infamy , the name of Irishmen and denote you forever wretched , enslaved to the power of England , or raise the Paddies to the consequence which they deserve and which England shall no longer withhold , to happiness , freedom , glory . . . " The couple ' s principal residence was Admiral Foley ' s country estate , Abermarlais , near Llansadwrn in Carmarthenshire , which he had purchased in 1795 ( from Viscount Hawarden ) with his share of the bounty resulting from the capture of a Spanish ship . After his death , Lady Lucy Foley lived in Arundel until 1841 , when she settled near Marseilles , France , where she spent the remainder of her life . The Foleys had no children however , and after Lady Lucy ' s death in 1851 Abermarlais passed first to Admiral Foley ' s nephew Herbert Foley ( d . 1861 ) , who was ' a person of unsound mind ' , and then to Herbert ' s own nephew ( i . e . Admiral Foley ' s great - nephew ) Henry Foley . Abermarlais remained in the Foley family until 1909 , when it was sold to the Hunter family . The last known person to live in the house was the reclusive Miss Campbell - Davys , before a fire gutted the house in 1980 leading to its demolition in 1982 , a terrible loss for the county on account of its long and fascinating history as well as its architectural beauty , the old manor house having been demolished in order for Admiral Foley to build a new and more commodious mansion on a different site . The site is now used as a caravan park .