Resplendent in his naval uniform and decorated with two epaulettes, this enamel portrait by Henry Bone depicts Naval Commissioner Sir John Deas Thomson.Born in Edinburgh in 1763, Thomson had a successful career in naval administration as had his father before him but, as a young man, he first travelled to Charleston, South Carolina where his mother had family. There he managed his uncle’s plantation before ambition led him to strike out on his own as a merchant. He married Rebecca Freer, the daughter of an influential planter, became a US citizen and planned to settle permanently in South Carolina. His parents, however, were not supportive of this and so persuaded him to return with his wife to Edinburgh.There he continued to work as a merchant before being appointed to his father’s old post as Navy Commissioner. In 1805 Sir Charles Middleton, a relative of Thomson’s mother, was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. He in turn appointed Thomson as his Private Secretary prompt...