Admiral Sir Chaloner Ogle (1680/1-1750)

A three-quarter length portrait of Admiral Sir Chaloner Ogle. He wears a blue velvet coat with gold buttons and gold embroidered buttonholes and a white campaign wig. His right-hand rests on an anchor fluke, his left on his hip. In the left background is a ship with a white ensign and a union at the main. However, the flags do not appear to be original to the painting, having been added or repainted later.

The painting was bequeathed to Greenwich Hospital by Ogle’s great-nephew, Sir Charles Ogle, Bart., Admiral of the Fleet (1775-1858), in 1859.

On 18 June 1858, Admiral Sir Watkin Owen Pell (1788-1869) recorded in his diary that he had received a note from Sir Charles Ogle, informing him that: “he had at my suggestion left the Portrait of his father [sic] Sir Chaloner Ogle Admiral of the Fleet in 1749 to Greenwich Hospital” (PLL/88/38). Pell here confuses Ogle’s father, Admiral of the Red Sir Chaloner Ogle (1726–1816), with his great-uncle, the Chaloner Ogle depicted in the portrait. In the 1862 edition of ‘Catalogue of the Portraits of Distinguished Naval Commanders, and Representations of their Warlike Achievements, exhibited in the Naval Gallery of Greenwich Hospital’, the portrait is said to depict Ogle ‘in 1749’ (p. 29, no. 103), echoing how Pell had dated the painting. This date cannot be correct because Ogle does not wear naval uniform, which was introduced in Britain in 1748.

The Museum has traditionally dated the portrait to around 1745–47. An earlier date of 1718 was proposed because of the white ensign on the ship in the background, potentially identifying the vessel as the ‘Worcester’, which Ogle commanded in 1717 under Sir George Byng, then Admiral of the White. However, given that the ship’s flags appear to have been repainted, they are not necessarily a reliable indicator of the picture’s date. Moreover, Ogle wears a campaign wig with a twisted lock hanging over his shoulder. This style of wig did not become generally fashionable until the 1720s and continued to be worn in the 1730s and 1740s. While it is possible that Ogle was an earlier adopter of this style, it seems more likely that the portrait dates from the 1740s as previously supposed.

In February 1722, Ogle, then in command of the ‘Swallow’ (50 guns) found the notorious pirate Bartholomew Roberts off the coast of West Africa. In the engagement, Roberts was killed and his ship captured. A second pirate ship commanded by a man called Skyrm was captured the same day. Ogle was knighted for this service and was granted the pirates' treasure by the King, which amounted to a considerable fortune of £10,000. In 1742 he was a flag officer under Vernon during the disastrous operations around Cartagena (Colombia) and was deeply involved in the disputes and quarrels which attended them. He was even charged and found guilty of assaulting the governor of Jamaica. However, he remained commander-in-chief there following Vernon’s return to England in 1742, until 1745.