A three-quarter-length portrait, slightly to the right, showing Owen in his admiral's full dress uniform of the 1847-56 pattern, leaning on his telescope and wearing the ribbon and star of the GCB and the collar and star of the GCH. The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1849.
Edward Campbell Rich Owen was entered on the books of the ‘Enterprize’ in the Mediterranean aged four, but he appears to have entered the Navy in 1786 in the ‘Culloden’, the guardship at Plymouth. He was promoted lieutenant of the ‘Fortunée’ on 6 November 1793; after service with his godfather, Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Rich, in the ‘Impregnable’, he was promoted commander on 19 September 1796. A series of commands followed and he saw a good deal of action off the French coast. On 2 January 1815 he was nominated KCB; the following year he was appointed to the yacht ‘Royal Sovereign’, which he commanded for six years. From 1822 to 1825 he was commander-in-chief in the West Indies with his broad pennant in the ‘Gloucester’. Between 1826 and 1829 he was MP for Sandwich. On 17 May 1825 he was promoted rear-admiral; in 1827 he became surveyor-general of the ordnance. He was commander-in-chief in the East Indies from December 1828 until 1832. He was promoted vice-admiral on 10 January 1837 and was commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, 1841–45, with his flag in the ‘Queen’ and then in the ‘Formidable’. He attained the rank of admiral on 11 December 1846.