This portrait was previously thought to be of Sir William Hoste. Another version of this portrait in a family collection, however, is identified as being a portrait of John Walter Roberts (1792–1845). As the sitter does not look like known representations of Hoste, of which there are very few, it seems very probable that this is a portrait of Roberts. He is wearing full dress uniform of the 1812–25 pattern and could either be a commander, to which he was promoted in 1814, or a captain, 1823. The attribution to Samuel Lane is based upon a portrait of Hoste being exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1817, but because this is not now thought to be Hoste this is now questionable.

Roberts entered the Navy in 1804 as a volunteer in the ‘Medusa’ commanded by his uncle Sir John Gore, under whom he escorted Lord Cornwallis as Governor-General to India, covering the return journey of 13,831 miles in a remarkable 82 days. In 1806 as a midshipman in the ‘Revenge’ he served off Brest and L’Orient and for nine months at the blockade of Rochefort where he witnessed on 25 September the capture of four French frigates by a squadron under Sir Samuel Hood.