An English politician and commander, Henry William Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, became famous for his successful leadership of the heavy cavalry at the Battle of Waterloo. The bust was commissioned by George IV who had the interiors of Windsor Castle decorated with portraits of British and foreign military heroes who had led victorious campaigns against the French during the Napoleonic Wars.

Henry William is depicted in the ancient classical style with fashionable brushed forward hair and sideburns and with bare chest partially covered by a toga fixed on his left shoulder.

Peter Turnerelli, upon recommendation of the artist Sir Thomas Lawrence, became sculptor to the Queen in 1802 and sculptor-in-ordinary to the Royal family in 1805. He concentrated mainly in the production of marble portrait busts in the neo-classical style which had become fashionable towards the end of the eighteenth century.