Admiral Sir William Hargood (1762-1839) RMG BHC2747

Admiral Sir William Hargood (1762-1839)
A three-quarter length portrait painted at the end of Hargood’s naval career. He stands in front of a coastal scene and is shown facing to right in admiral’s full dress uniform, wearing the ribbon and star of the GCB as well as the star of the GCH and the Trafalgar medal. His right hand rests on an anchor fluke and his left on his hip in an attitude of authority and confidence. The sea and horizon are behind him on the left. Hargood served under the protection of an old family friend, Sir Peter Parker from 1775-80. The next year he was captured by the Spaniards at Pensacola. In 1782 in the ‘Magnificent’ he was present at the battle of the Saints. While commanding ‘Hyaena’ in the West Indies in 1793 he was captured by the French ship ‘Concorde’. In 1805 he commanded the ‘Belleisle’ at Trafalgar as the second ship in Collingwood’s squadron. At the end of the French Revolutionary War he commanded a squadron in the Channel Islands, and was later Commander-in-Chief at Plymouth from 1833-36. The portrait was presented by Lady Hargood to the Greenwich Hospital Collection, soon after his death in 1844.

Admiral Sir William Hargood