Lieutenant George Belson, Corps of Marines, outside the Guard Room of the Marine Barracks, Chatham, 1780 (c)

Oil on canvas by Richard Livesay (1753-1826), 1780 (c).

George Belson (1763-1855) was commissioned into the Corps of Marines as a second lieutenant on 6 May 1778 and served with the Chatham Division.

The Corps of Marines (later the Royal Marines) was instituted in 1755 to provide military support aboard Royal Naval vessels in time of war. Organised into the three port-based divisions of Portsmouth, Plymouth and Chatham, at first the Corps had no established barracks. Instead the men were billeted in public houses when ashore. The barracks at Chatham was completed in September 1779 and the portrait may record Belson's promotion to lieutenant on 6 July 1780, outside the new building.

In 1791 Belson was appointed to Barrack Master of the Royal Marines at Chatham and four years later he became captain on half-pay. He continued to serve in this post at the same rank until 1832 and died in 1855, aged almost 90.

Richard Livesay was a pupil of Benjamin West and drawing master to the royal children from 1790 until 1793. He exhibited 69 paintings at the Royal Academy between 1776 and 1821, including many small full-length portraits of Army and Navy officers like this. From 1796 he was drawing master at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, and he painted and engraved many marine subjects and military reviews.