In this half-length portrait Dring has depicted Commander Corbet-Singleton seated in three-quarter profile facing towards the left of the picture plane. Although he is seated Corbet-Singleton is leaning forwards slightly, his eyes seemingly focused on something outside of the composition, as though concentrating on something the viewer cannot see. He appears to be seated outside as the background is a watery sky blue in colour. On the right hand cuff of his navy jacket the pattern of the gold embroidery gives away his rank as Commander. The portrait is signed and dated at the top right hand corner of the drawing, and still in the original mount and frame from the War Artists Advisory Committee. On the bottom left hand corner of the mount is the label ‘366’, left over from when the portrait was displayed in the WAAC’s exhibition. The sitter, the son of a decorated Army colonel, was born in Scotland in December 1905. In August 1939, as a lieutenant-commander (since 1937) he was appointed captain of the Hunt-class minesweeper 'Albury' and was awarded the DSC for his part in the Dunkirk evacuation of 1940. He captained four more mineswepers during the course of the war, gaining two bars to his DSC, being once mentioned in dispatches and (apparently posthumously) receiving the French Croix de Guerre for his part in Operation Dragoon, the August 1944 landings in Provence. He was promoted to commander on 30 June1943 and acting-captain, June-October 1944. After a spell of staff work at the end of the war he may later have been given command of HMS 'Lofoten', a landing ship (tank), possibly in the Mediterranean, since he died (though as resident at a shore address) in the Naval hospital on Malta on 12 November 1949.

William Dring (1904-90) earned his reputation as a fine draughtsman and portrait painter whilst studying under Henry Tonks at the Slade School of Art between 1922 and 1925. He worked as a teacher of drawing and painting at the Southampton School of Art until 1940 when he was employed by the War Artist Advisory Committee, first as official war artist to the Admiralty and later to the Air Ministry. He made a large number of portrait drawings of individuals and groups, all remarkable for their informality. Dring travelled extensively to complete his commissions. The drawing is always precise and carefully modelled using pastel, a medium in which he specialised, and which allowed him to capture the likeness and spirit of his subjects quickly and under a variety of circumstances.