A half-length, full-face portrait, showing Burnett seated in his vice-admiral undress uniform wearing his cap with a cigarette in his right hand.
Robert Lindsay Burnett declared his intention to join the Navy aged seven. He entered ‘Britannia’ in 1903, perhaps showing greater athletic promise than intellectual achievement. Reaching the rank of lieutenant in 1910, he qualified as a physical training instructor. He was in small ships for the next eight years, seeing action in the Heligoland Bight and at Dogger Bank. He took command of a torpedo boat in 1915 and of destroyer attached to the Grand Fleet. Apart from two years in command of a sloop on the South Africa station, Burnett was occupied with physical training until 1928, being promoted commander in 1923. He was active in reorganizing the physical training branch of the Navy and took a keen interest in producing amateur theatricals.
He was promoted captain in December 1930, having been executive officer in HMS ‘Rodney’. He then commanded a destroyer flotilla on the China station, became director of physical training and sports, and commanded the cruiser flagship of the South African squadron before being appointed commodore of the naval barracks at Chatham. His energy and drive secured him promotion to acting rear-admiral in November 1940 (confirmed in January 1941) as flag officer to the Home Fleet mine-laying squadron. Further Home Fleet appointments followed and Burnett was heavily involved in the Arctic convoys and the action against the ‘Scharnhorst’. He was promoted vice-admiral in 1943 and left the Home Fleet in mid-1944 to become commander-in-chief, South Atlantic.
He was promoted admiral in 1946 and became commander-in-chief at Plymouth, retiring in May 1950. He then spent four years as the chairman of the White Fish Authority. He received numerous honours, including the OBE (1925), CB (1942), DSO (1943), KBE (1944), KCB and CStJ (1945) and GBE (1950).
Edward Roworth trained at the Slade School of Art under Henry Tonks. He arrived in South Africa, which became his home, with British forces during the Anglo-Boer War, 1899–1902. After the end of the war, he settled in Cape Town, where he set up a teaching studio. In 1908 Roworth was elected President of the South African Society of Artists (he served as president again in 1918–20 and 1933–36). He championed a conservative style and was noted for a number of church frescoes, which were probably the first painted in South Africa.