Rectangular miniature in watercolour on ivory in a gilt metal rectangular glazed frame with a fixed metal suspension loop, top centre, and a glazed back that covers a light-coloured fabric lining. The sitter is shown head and shoulders, turned to his right but facing out to the viewer, against a dappled blue and white background. He has light brown hair parted on the left, blue eyes and wears a grey single-breasted jacket over a white shirt and loosely knotted brown tie. From his apparent age and the fact he is not in uniform the image was probably made shortly before his death, aged 17, or - if done later - based on a photograph taken about that time. The work looks professional but the identity of the artist is not yet known, though it is signed 'MH.', loosely incised with multiple strokes, lower right.

At the start of the First World War, Trounson was a probationary Royal Naval Reserve midshipman in the armoured cruiser HMS 'Good Hope', flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock's small British squadron in the eastern Pacific. On 1 November 1914 this was overwhelmed by the more powerful German Pacific squadron of Vice-Admiral Maximilian von Spee at the Battle of Coronel, off the coast of Chile. Both the 'Good Hope' and the armoured cruiser 'Monmouth' were sunk - the former exploding - and there were no survivors from either ship, a combined loss of 1,654 men. The defeat was rapidly avenged at the Battle of the Falkland Islands on 8 December, when Vice-Admiral Frederick Doveton-Sturdee's much larger squadron, sent to pursue von Spee, sank or subsequently hunted down and destroyed every German ship except the 'Dresden', which escaped. Von Spee died in the sinking of his flagship, 'Scharnhorst', and two of his sons were also killed. This item was acquired in 1971 from Mr Basil Martin with a medal group comprising Trounson's 1914-15 star and two other decorations, presumably all posthumously awarded (see MED1288).