A three-quarter-length, almost full-face portrait showing Kent in his commander’s full dress uniform of the 1812–25 pattern. His gloved left hand rests on his sword; his right hand is thrust into his coat. Kent’s cocked hat and right glove lie on a table to the left, while two small warships are seen in action beyond a red curtain behind the table.
William George Carlisle Kent joined the 80-gun ‘Le Tigre’ as a first-class volunteer on 2 July 1798. Serving under Captain Sir William Sidney Smith, he saw action at the defence of Acre. Between 1802 and 1807, he was in the Far East in the store-ship ‘Buffalo’. In 1807 he became first lieutenant and commander of the ‘Porpoise’, being confirmed in his rank on 17 May 1809. During this command, which saw him involved removing settlers from Norfolk Island in the Pacific, he was imprisoned in New South Wales and brought to court martial by Commodore William Bligh for disobedience and acting without orders. The charges were dismissed at trial in Portsmouth in 1811.
While first lieutenant of the 16-gun ‘Sparrowhawk’, he was blinded in both eyes following an accident and did not serve again. He was promoted commander on 15 June 1814 and to captain on the retired list in 1851.
Kent's father, John (d. 1827), spent more than 20 years as a purser in the Navy and was appointed steward of the Royal Naval Hospital at Plymouth in 1803.