Richard Rothwell

Hon. Alexander James Beresford Hope, the sitter's stepson and heir;
Dukes of Newcastle, Clumber Park

The sitter was the illegitimate son of George Beresford, 1st Marquess of Waterford.  He was sent to the military school at Strasbourg at the age of seventeen and later that year joined the 6th regiment as an Ensign.  He soon acquired a reputation as a fearless officer and by 1795 he was a Lieutenant-Colonel in charge of the famous 88th foot with whom he saw action in the West Indies and in Egypt.  He returned as a Brigadier-General, and in 1806 took part in the successful recapture of the Cape of Good Hope.  Beresford was sent to occupy Madeira, where he impressed the Portuguese by studying their language.  He joined Wellesley in Portugal and was chosen to take command of the Portuguese army, where his fierce discipline saw results and won Wellington's approval.  He was made Knight of the Bath and a Portuguese Count.  He led his troops with great courage in the bloody battle of Albuera in 1811, and joined Wellington's offensive, becoming his second in command in 1813.  At the end of the war he returned to Lisbon for five years and made two trips to Brazil.

In 1823 he was made Viscount Beresford and received many honours and offices appointments including Governor of Jersey (1820 -1854) and of Cork.  In 1832 he married his cousin Louisa Hope and settled at Bedgebury Park in Kent.  This portrait relates to Lawrence's two full length portraits of the sitter  painted circa 1818.  Another portrait of the sitter by Rothwell was in the collection of Henry Hope, the sitter's brother-in-law, and is now at the National Portrait Gallery.