A half-length portrait showing Bayntun seated to the left wearing a black cutaway coat and his Trafalgar medal and the star and neck decoration of the KCB.
Henry William Bayntun was promoted lieutenant on 15 April 1783. He served at the capture of Martinique in March 1794 and was promoted by Sir John Jervis to command the sloop ‘Avenger’; following the capture of Guadeloupe, he was promoted captain of the frigate ‘Undaunted’ on 4 May 1794. Further service in the Caribbean followed. In 1804 he was appointed to command the ‘Leviathan’, 74 guns, and took part in the chase of the French fleet across the Atlantic and back, which culminated in the Battle of Trafalgar. At Nelson’s funeral, Bayntun bore the guidon in the river procession from Greenwich to Whitehall on 8 January 1806.
He was promoted rear-admiral on 12 August 1812 and surrendered command of the yacht ‘Royal Sovereign’. He saw no further active service and rose to vice-admiral on 19 July 1821 and admiral on 10 January 1837. He was made KCB on 2 January 1815 and GCB on 25 October 1839.