Captain Peter Parker, 1785-1814<br><p>A half-length portrait to left in captain's (over three years) full-dress uniform, 1795-1812 with the lapels buttoned back. In 1803 he was a lieutenant in the 'Victory', 100 guns, off Toulon, under Lord Nelson, from which in the following year he was promoted to commander. In October 1805 he was in command of the 'Weazel', 18guns, and was the first to see the Franco-Spanish Allied fleet leaving Cadiz. He was sent to Gibraltar to warn the ships there and arrived back with the fleet to find that the Battle of Trafalgar had already been fought. He was immediately promoted captain and went to the Mediterranean. While in command of the frigate 'Menelaus', 46 guns, he distinguished himself in many small actions but particularly in his attempt to cut out the 'Pauline', 40 guns. In 1813 he returned to home waters and in the following year, still in the 'Menelaus', went to fight the Americans at the end of the War of 1812. He was killed in an attack on some militiamen near the Chesapeake River. The portrait was left to Greenwich Hospital by the sitter's widow in 1851, when a separate note dated 1847 expressing her wish that they would accept it was found enclosed in her formal will.<br></p>
Captain Peter Parker, 1785-1814
<bdi><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:John_Hoppner" class="extiw" title="w:en:John Hoppner"><span title="British painter (1758-1810)">John Hoppner</span></a>
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1808-10, circa
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