A half-length, slightly to the left, showing Henderson seated in his admiral’s full dress uniform, 1912–21, wearing his medals and the neck decoration and star of a KBE; his hands are clasped on his sword hilt and his right elbow rests on the arm of the wooden chair.
William Hannam Henderson entered the Navy in 1859 and was promoted lieutenant on 11 September 1866, commander on 31 December 1879 and captain on 1 January 1886. Commanding HMS ‘Conquest’, he took part in the punitive mission against the Sultan of Witu in 1890. He was promoted rear-admiral on 20 November 1899 and appointed admiral superintendent of Devonport Dockyard on 11 July 1902. He had no further appointments and was promoted admiral on 30 June 1908 and made a KBE on 3 June 1924. Henderson was the founding editor of ‘The Naval Review’, which was established in October 1912 ‘to promote the advancement and spreading within the service of knowledge relevant to the higher aspects of the naval profession’.