The engraved inscription below the image reads: 'Rear Admiral Sir Horace Lambert Alexander Hood, KCB DSO MVO. / Who went down with his Flagship H.M.S. Invincible / whilst leading the 3rd Battle Cruiser Squadron into action / at the Battle of Jutland 31st May 1916'. Hood was member of an illustrious naval family, being the third of five sons of the fourth Viscount Hood. He joined the Navy in the 'Britannia' training ship aged twelve and proved a brilliant student both there and when subsequently examined for promotion to lieutenant in 1890, when he scored a then record 4398 marks out of a possible 4600. He became a gunnery specialist and had an active early career, rising to captain in 1903 and almost immediately flag captain in the East Indies. In this role he saw hand-to-hand fighting aginst the Dervishes in Somaliland, which earned him a DSO. He became naval attache in Washington, 1907-08, marrying an American widow in 1910 and, from later that year to 1913 commanded the RN College at Osborne. He was then promoted Rear-Admiral and, after a brief stint at sea, in June 1914 became naval secretary to Winston Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty. He returned to sea later that year and in May 1915 took command of the 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet with his flag in the 'Invincible'. Hood's fast thinking saw him play a critical part in the early stages of the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916, and one which is generally credited with turning events in British favour. As it developed his squadron joined with and formed the vanguard of Beatty's, against Hipper's. At just after 6.30 in the evening,with 'Invnicible' giving and taking heavy fire, a shell from the German 'Derfflinger' exploded in her Q-turret: the flash penetrated the magazine and the ship immediately blew up, leaving her separated bow and stern briefly upright in the water. There were only six survivors: in Hood, the Navy lost one of its most able young flag officers, who would undoubtedly have gone a great deal further had he lived. Hood's knighthood was awarded posthumously: this portrait is also likely to be posthumous and may be based on a photograph taken of him as a captain.