Admiral Sir Thomas Pasley Bt (1734-1808) had a long and active naval career beginning before the Seven Years War and rising steadily through it and the American and French Revolutionary Wars. Appointed Commodore in command in the Medway in 1788 he became a rear-admiral in April 1794, just before losing his leg in the 'Bellerophon' in Howe's victory over the French at the Battle of the Glorious First of June that year. He received a pension of £1000 in compensation, a baronetcy and one of the gold medals and chains awarded to the seven flag-officers in that action, an unusually high number. His last active services were as a vice-admiral; as commander-in-chief at the Nore (1798) and, from February 1799, at Plymouth. He became Admiral of the Blue in January 1801 and Admiral of the White in the post-Trafalgar promotions of November 1805, and died in retirement at his home near Winchester in 1808.

The Museum also has an oil portrait of Pasley by Lemuel Abbott (BHC2941) and a fine miniature apparently based on that by Horace Hone (MNT0085).