The youngest son of Sir John Inglis of Cramond, Charles entered the navy at around the age of fourteen and served with distinction against both the French and Spaniards between 1757 and 1782. Settling nearing Edinburgh in 1783, he saw no further service in the navy but was promoted to rear-admiral a year before his death. Originally painted in about 1783, this portrait showed Inglis wearing the full dress uniform of a captain with his right hand resting on a cannon. However, presumably at the request of a member of the Inglis family, around four years after the sitter’s death Raeburn repainted the portrait to show him in the dress uniform of a rear-admiral - including gold epaulettes which were only introduced in 1795.