Portrait of William Dalison (1730-1809), of Hamptons, Kent, Captain in the West Kent Militia, half-length, in uniform, his right arm resting on a plinth, a landscape beyond

William Dalison was the son and heir of Thomas Dalison, of Manton, Lincolnshire, and of Hamptons, Kent, and his second wife Isabella, daughter of Peter Burrell of Beckenham. He is identified by Waterhouse (op.cit.) as a Captain in the West Kent militia in 1762. He was commissioned lieutenant in 1759 and was a Colonel between 1780-91 and served in the militia for thirty-two years and lived at Hamptons, near Tonbridge.

For a Captain aspiring to a heroic iconography Reynolds was the obvious choice as a portrait painter. Reynolds had made his name as a portraitist with his heroic full-length of a naval commander, Commodore Keppel (National Maritime Museum, London), which he executed after returning from Italy in 1752, having accompanied Keppel on a voyage to the Mediterranean in 1749. Thereafter officers were a large proportion of his sitters. The full-length of Keppel was to remain in the artist's house for some time after its completion as an advertisement of Reynolds' skills.