A full-length portrait of Edward Vernon (1723–1794) in vice-admiral’s full-dress uniform, 1787–1795, holding his hat in his left hand and resting both hands on the top of a cane. He stands on a rocky seashore with ships in the right hand background. Lettered beneath the image with the title: ‘Vice Admiral Sr Edwd Vernon.’ Also lettered within the image in the lower right, ‘Painted by H. Singleton / Engraved by J. Jones Engraver Extraordinary to his R.H. the Prince of Wales & Principal Engraver to His R.H. the Duke of York’, and at the bottom in the centre, ‘Publish’d as the Act directs Septr. 1. 1791, by J. Jones, No. 75, Great Portland Street, Portland Place.’ This print was engraved and published by John Jones on 1 September 1791 after Henry Singleton’s oil painting of around 1790, now in the collection of the National Maritime Museum (see BHC3070). Sir Edward Vernon was a distant relative of the famous Admiral Edward ‘Grog’ Vernon (1684–1757). He entered the Naval Academy at Portsmouth in November 1735, before joining the Portland as a volunteer per order. He was promoted lieutenant on 4 April 1743 and post-captain almost exactly a decade later on 3 April 1753. He commanded the ‘St Albans’, 64 guns, under Admiral Edward Boscawen at the Battle of Lagos on 19 August 1759. In March 1771, he became flag captain to Vice-Admiral Thomas Pye at Portsmouth in the ‘Barfleur’, 98 guns, and he was knighted by the King during his review of the fleet at Spithead on 22 June 1773. He was commodore and commander-in-chief in the East Indies in the late 1770s, becoming rear-admiral on 19 March 1779. He returned to England in April 1780 and did not serve at sea again, retiring to his residence at Binfield, Berkshire, and attracting some notice by making a couple of balloon ascents from Tottenham Court Road, London, in spring and summer 1785. (Updated May 2019.)