Dawes, 2nd of the 'Queen'

Watercolour portrait of Lieutenant Richard Dawes (1759–1794) in profile to the viewer’s left, against a black background. He wears lieutenant’s full-dress uniform (1787–95 pattern) and a black cockade on his hat. Inscribed beneath the image is the sitter’s name and rank ‘Dawes, 2nd [Lieutenant] of the Queen’. A further inscription indicates that this portrait and another mounted on the same page depicting Master William Mitchell (PAF4927) were made to commemorate the deaths of their sitters at the Battle of the Glorious First of June in 1794: ‘Killed in the Battle of the 1st of June / Better nor Braver Men never Lived’. Dawes was badly wounded during the battle and died four days later.

The sketch was made by Aiskew Paffard Hollis (1764–1844), who served alongside Dawes as a lieutenant in the ‘Queen’. It is part of an album containing fifty-seven drawings (PAH4886–PAH4943) created by Hollis while serving in ‘Queen’ and in other ships, including ‘Pegase’ in 1785–90 and ‘Andromeda’ in 1790–93. The album includes portraits of Hollis’s shipmates, as well as scenes of everyday life ashore and afloat.