A half-length portrait to the right showing Griffiths in an undress coat; no rank is visible.
Edward Griffiths entered the Navy as a third-class volunteer on 2 April 1803, serving in the ‘Gladiator’. He was then moved to the 74-gun ‘Magnificent’ under Captain Jervis, which was wrecked on the Black Rocks off Brest on 25 March 1804. He saw service and action in the North Sea, the Caribbean and North America during the Napoleonic War. While in the ‘Franchise’, he was wounded by a musket ball through the thigh when engaging four armed Spanish brigs off Havana in 1806. He was promoted lieutenant on 2 February 1815. He was then employed in the transports service, famously giving Sir John Franklin his last consignment of supplies on his ill-fated expedition to find the North-West Passage. His last service was in the Black Sea during the Crimean War.