This sensitive sketch is one of Burnet’s studies of old seamen for a painting of 1837 called ‘Greenwich Pensioners and Naval Heroes’, which was exhibited at the British Institution in 1837. It shows Pensioners celebrating the anniversary of Trafalgar in Greenwich Park and was painted speculatively to complement David Wilkie’s ‘Chelsea Pensioners reading the Waterloo dispatch’, which was owned by the Duke of Wellington, who also bought Burnet’s picture. Both are hanging in Apsley House, and the NMM holds a print of the completed Burnet picture (PAI1598). In a key published to accompanying the print, the individual depicted in this sketch is described as ‘Mathews, Gunner’s Mate, Victory’, no forename being given. The painting was previously catalogued by the museum as depicting Thomas Mathews. However, Natalie Conboy has recently suggested that the sitter was in fact an individual called William Mathews, who was an Able Seaman on the Victory at Trafalgar. The Greenwich Hospital entry books confirm that William Mathews was a Greenwich Pensioner from 1831 until 1844. He was depicted in Andrew Morton’s ‘The United Service’, painted in 1845 (BHC1159). The sitter in the present sketch bears a striking resemblance to his namesake in Morton’s painting, including the blinded right eye. It therefore seems likely that William Mathews is indeed the individual represented here. (Updated KG 08/2021).