Print. Sandon was a long-serving army officer who was involved with Mary Anne Clarke (c. 1776-1852), the mistress, to 1806, of HRH Prince Frederick Augustus, Duke of York, in her scheme of taking bribes to put officers on the Duke's promotion lists in his role of commander-in-chief of the army. The matter came to notice and was subject to Parliamentary inquiry early in 1809, when Sandon's name came into evidence as an agent of Mrs Clarke for making such offers. Sandon had previous service under the Duke and the latter had certainly authorized lists, which he signed without reading, on which such names had been improperly entered. He was forced to resign his post, though reinstated in 1811 (fortunately in fact, since he was a much more effective administrator than he had been a field commander). This portrait was probably made while Sandon, who was also questioned by the inquiry, was confined for five weeks in Newgate Prison by order of Parliament, to which his petition for release was presented on 27 March 1809. This gives details of his 32-year military service, in which he had lost an eye and suffered other bad health and shows he was ordered to appear before the House the following day to be released (see Hansard, Parliamentary Debates,Vol XII, 1809, pp. 816-17).