Red wax head-and-shoulders bust, including a round wax socle. It shows John Speed in purser's uniform of the period 1833-43, with an epaulette on the right shoulder and a strap on the left to indicate rank. The sitter has combed close-cut hair and sideburns. The whole is mounted on a faded brown velvet base set into a stained round wooden stand, with small wooden bun feet. A glass dome fits inside the rim of the stand and over the velvet.

Speed appears to have come from Castle Cary, Somerset, though his antecedents present some identity problems. He went to sea in 1796 serving as a seaman, Captain's Clerk, Master's Mate and Acting Purser until gaining his passing certificate as a Purser after six years service on 9 December 1802. He returned to sea in August 1803 after the Peace of Amiens, mainly in small ships, and in 1805-06 was purser in the sixth-rate 'Hind'. He was purser of the 'Macedonian' when she was captured by the USS 'United States' in 1812 during the Anglo-American War of 1812-14, escaping injury in the close hand-to-hand combat of that action. He served to the end of the war in 1815 then went ashore and for 12 years ran the inn left to him by his father-in-law at Castle Cary, also raising a large family by two 'wives': to Betty Durnford (m. 1803) and then (on her death in 1813 and apparently illegally) her sister Sarah. In 1836 he expressed interest in further service and became Paymaster-Purser of the 'Asia', 1836-41, and the 'Queen' 1845-49, seeing active service in both these very large ships. Speed received the Naval General Service Medal (1847) with clasps 'EGYPT' (serving as Clerk on HMS 'Renown') and 'SYRIA' (serving as Purser on HMS 'Asia'). He died at East Stonehouse, Devon, on 25 January 1859.