He is a descendant of William Nelson, 1st Earl Nelson, elder brother of Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté.
On 28 February 1835 his father inherited the title Earl Nelson from William Nelson, 1st Earl Nelson and adopted the surname of Nelson.
William Shakespeare | William Laud | Nelson Mandela | Willie Nelson | William Blake | William | William III of England | William Morris | William McKinley | William Howard Taft | William Ewart Gladstone | Nelson | William the Conqueror | William S. Burroughs | William Shatner | William Faulkner | William Randolph Hearst | William Wordsworth | William Tecumseh Sherman | William Hogarth | Prince William, Duke of Cambridge | William Penn | William Jennings Bryan | William Gibson | James Earl Jones | Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex | Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma | Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson | Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener | William Wilberforce |
He inherited the titles of Earl Nelson, Viscount Merton and Baron Nelson from his uncle William Nelson, 1st Earl Nelson, who died on 28 February 1835 without surviving male issue.
William Nelson was its first president, whose tremendous efforts raised subsidies for the establishment and the construction of the institute in Al Kibba, in Tripoli.