Left: Unidentified death mask.   Right: John Watson Gordon, Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane (1773–1860). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. 1848. Oil on canvas. © The Royal Society of Edinburgh.

There is one mask in the Laurence Hutton Collection of Life and Death Masks unmarked and unidentified. Might this be the death mask of Sir Thomas Brisbane? Here are a few known portraits next to our mask. What do you think?

Sir Thomas Brisbane led a brigade in the Battle of Plattsburgh in 1814, a loss for the British (artist unknown, courtesy State Library of Queensland).

According to the Australian Dictionary of Biography:

Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane (1773-1860), governor, was born on 23 July 1773 at Brisbane House, near Largs, Ayrshire, son of a family of ancient Scottish lineage. He was educated by tutors and attended both the University of Edinburgh and the English Academy, Kensington. In 1789 he was commissioned an ensign in the 38th Regiment, which next year he joined in Ireland; there he struck up a long and profitable friendship with a fellow subaltern, Arthur Wellesley. From 1793 to 1798 he served in Flanders as a captain, from 1795 to 1799 in the West Indies as a major, and from 1800 to 1803 he commanded the 69th Regiment in Jamaica as a lieutenant-colonel, earning high praise from the governor, Sir George Nugent. From 1803 to 1805 he served in England, but when the 69th was ordered to India went on half-pay in Scotland because of his health.