A half-length portrait of Sir Ashley Miles seated at a laboratory bench with hands in pockets. An open manuscript is on the bench in front of him and there is a steel fountain pen angled in his waistcoat packet, as if quickly pushed there. Behind, left and right, are angled rows of test tubes and laboratory glassware, with a Bunsen burner to the left as viewed. Miles is shown smiling with dark arched eyebrows contrasting with his grey hair, worn parted on his right-hand side. He wears a white shirt and red tie with a green waistcoat over this.