NAM.1960-12-27-1

General Sir Henry Clinton KB (1730-1795), in general officers’ uniform, 1776 (c). Miniature portrait in watercolour on ivory, attributed to John Ramage (1748-1802), 1776 (c). Henry Clinton commanded the British Army in America when he sat for this portrait in New York in about 1778 - 1782. He is shown in the dress uniform of a general officer with an epaulette on his right shoulder. On the outbreak of the war in America in 1775, Clinton, then a major-general, distinguished himself at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill and played an important role in the subsequent Battle of Long Island and the capture of New York. Although diffident by nature, he was frustrated that his strategies to defeat the rebel forces were dismissed by successive commanders-in-chief. In 1778 Clinton applied to resign his commission but instead, following the resignation of the then commander-in-chief, found himself appointed to that position. Clinton was promoted General in 1792 and appointed Governor of Gibraltar in 1794.

American War of Independence (1775-1783)