Morgan-Giles, eldest son of the racing-yacht designer F. C. Morgan Giles, was born on 19 June 1914 and educated at Clifton College, Bristol, before joining the Royal Navy, in which he spent most of the Second World War in the Mediterranean. He was particularly noted for his service in motor gunboats (MGBs) on the Dalmatian coast for which he won the DSO and was twice mentioned in dispatches. This portrait shows him at the end of the war in 'tropical whites' (used in the Mediterranean as well) in the rank of commander. As a captain he commanded HMS 'Vigilant' and 'Vernon' (1959-60) and HMS 'Belfast' (1961-62) before becoming a rear admiral and Admiral President of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich (1962-64). He then retired from the Navy and was elected a Conservative Member of Parliament at the Winchester by-election in the same year. He served until 1979, when he stood down, continuing to pursue farming interests in Hampshire and New South Wales: this he was able to do because, after being posted to the Far East after the war he married while on leave in Australia, his wife later inheriting a considerable fortune that gave them both financial security. He was knighted in 1985 and was Prime Warden of the Shipwrights' Company, 1987-88. At his death on 4 May 2013, aged 98, he was the oldest surviving former MP.

Anthony Devas (1911–58) was born in London and studied at the Slade School of Art, 1927–30, and was associated with members of the Euston Road School, characteristics of which, in the application of paint, can be seen in this portrait. He specialized in portraits and was elected Associate of the Royal Academy in 1953. The portrait, commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Committee, was painted in 1945: Devas's portrait of the poet Laurie Lee, done the previous year, is in the National Portrait Gallery.