(Updated, April 2015). A half-length portrait of Sir Thomas Pasley, when a rear-admiral, facing to the right in the 1787-95 undress uniform. He wears the gold chain and medal awarded to flag officers engaged at the Battle of the Glorious First of June 1794, in which he flew his flag as a recently promoted rear-admiral in the 'Bellerophon' and lost his left leg below the knee. This action prompted production of this medal, with a smaller version for the captains engaged with a top and bottom bar and short suspension ribbon in blue and white for fixing to the left lapel or jacket breast. Both continued to be awarded for later actions of the French wars and they were the first regular official naval battle decorations. The captain's foreshadowed the general form familiar today but the Battle of 1 June was the only one for which chains were awarded: these were in fact presented in 1794, while the medal only followed in 1796 after production was completed. (Those for later actions had a neck loop of the same blue-and-white ribbon used for the captain's medal.) Given that patterns of naval uniform also changed from 1 June 1795 this suggests that Abbott completed most of the portrait, including the chain, early in that year and added the medal itself later but before the image was engraved as a mezzotint (published February 1797, see PAG6456). Pasley's fighting career had begun as a lieutenant in the Seven Years War and continued through the War of American Independence. He was Commodore in the Medway in 1788 and was promoted rear-admiral in April 1794. In 1798 he became Commander-in-Chief at the Nore and in 1799 at Plymouth, which was his last service. There is what appears to be another version of this portrait in Scotland, in possession of the Annan Museum (Dumfries and Galloway Council) Museum. There is also has a miniature based on it by Horace Hone (MNT0085). All are fairly rare images of the chained medal, although there are many showing officers who later received them on ribbon, notably Nelson. There is also a fine caricature by Rowlandson showing Pasley in one of his last shore-based roles, as 'The Tough Old Commodore' (PAF5936).