then barely nineteen, served with Locker for fifteen months. His experiences with Locker, and Locker's teachings had a lasting effect on Nelson. Twenty years later, on 9 February 1799, Nelson wrote to his old captain: "I have been your scholar; it is you who taught me to board a Frenchman by your conduct when in the Experiment; it is you who always told me 'Lay a Frenchman close and you will beat him;’ and my only merit in my profession is being a good scholar. Our friendship will never end but with my life, but you have always been too partial to me." Later life By 1779, Locker's health was declining and was invalided out of the service. By 1787, with the prospect of war with France looming, Locker was appointed to regulate the impress service at Exeter. In the Spanish armament of 1790, he was appointed to command HMS Cambridge as flag-captain to Vice-Admiral Thomas Graves. He spent a brief period as commodore and Commander-in-Chief, The Nore in 1792, and on 15 February 1793 he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Greenwich Hospital. Personal life and death In 1770 William married Lucy, the daughter of Admiral William Parry and the granddaughter of Commodore Charles Brown. Before her death in 1780, the two had two daughters, Lucy and Elizabeth, and three sons, William, John, and Edward Hawke. The family had interests in Addington Kent, and a farm at Gillingham. William Locker died at Greenwich Hospital on 26 December 1800. The following day Nelson wrote a letter of condolence to his eldest son, John: "The greatest consolation to us, his friends that remain, is that he has left a character for honour and honesty which none of us can surpass and very few attain." He was buried in the family vault at Addington where he had previously erected a memorial to his wife. Influence and the Nelson connection Naval history Locker's role at a teacher, friend and correspondent of Nelson continues to make him a source of scholarly interest. During his later years and with the assistance of his friend Admiral John Forbes, Locker began compiling material for a naval history. The material gathered was passed to John Charnock, who incorporated it into his six-volume Biographia Navalis (1794–8). Locker also suggested he write, and helped him with, his 'Life of Nelson'. Art and portraits Nelson was also staying with Locker at Greenwich in