An ambrotype (also known as wet collodion positive) quarter plate photograph. A full length portrait photograph of Henry Roberts, a Royal Navy sailor, standing next to a round-topped table, with a cap on it. The backdrop is cloth with a printed scene down both sides of branches and leaves. Roberts is standing with his right hand resting on his hip and his left arm placed behind his back. He is wearing his sailor's uniform of dark bell-bottom trousers, a dark sailor's smock with necktie and lanyard around the neck. He is wearing three medals on his left breast, which may relate to his time on board the St Jean D'Acre during the Crimea War.

The description of him in his Continuous and General Service form when he joined in June 1853 is that he was 5ft 11 inches tall, hazel coloured eyes, dark hair and small pox marked face. By 1863 he had a ship and bracelet tattooed on his right arm and a man and flag on his left. [see TNA, ADM 139/42].