Britain’s greatest naval hero will be remembered at Great Yarmouth’s annual Trafalgar Day Service, to be held at Nelson’s monument, in South Denes, on Sunday, October 23.

The service, led by The Rev Jemma Sanders, of Great Yarmouth Minster, is open to all who wish to honour Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson, who was killed by a French sniper at the Battle of Trafalgar, on October 21, 1805.

The event, organised by Great Yarmouth Borough Council, will start at 1pm with a procession from South Beach Parade to the monument.

At 1.15pm, approximately the time Admiral Nelson was shot, the East Norfolk Militia will fire a gun. Rum or orange juice, if preferred, will be distributed to all present to toast Nelson’s immortal memory.

Cllr Malcolm Bird, the mayor of the Great Yarmouth borough, will lay a wreath at the base of the column on behalf of the people of the borough. The service will also include hymns, prayers and readings.

Cllr Bird said: “Admiral Nelson is a national hero and a true son of Norfolk, who is a major figure in both Great Yarmouth’s and Britain’s long naval histories. His death at the moment of his greatest triumph makes his story particularly memorable and poignant.

“We hope that many people will again turn up to toast his immortal memory at Great Yarmouth’s landmark Nelson monument. Other groups and individuals are also invited to lay their own wreaths on the day.”

The town was an important naval base throughout the Napoleonic Wars, and Admiral Nelson, who was born at Burnham Thorpe, in north-west Norfolk, in 1758, landed at Great Yarmouth on three occasions prior to his death in 1805.

When he landed at Great Yarmouth after the Battle of the Nile, in 1798, he was given a hero’s welcome and was carried to the Wrestler’s Inn, on Church Plain. There he was presented with the Freedom of the Borough.

The Nelson monument, also known as the Norfolk Naval Pillar, stands at 144ft tall and is only slightly shorter than its counterpart in London.

It was built in 1819 to commemorate Nelson’s death at the Battle of Trafalgar. At the time the South Denes was an empty sand spit and the monument stood right in the centre of it.