Regency Personalities Series-Viscount Sir Samuel Hood

Regency Personalities Series

In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

Viscount Samuel Hood
12 December 1724 – 27 January 1816

Samuel Hood

Viscount Sir Samuel Hood son of Samuel Hood, vicar of Butleigh in Somerset, and prebendary of Wells and Mary Hoskins, daughter of Richard Hoskins, Esquire, of Beaminster, Dorset. In 1740 Captain (later Admiral) Thomas Smith was stranded in Butleigh when his carriage broke down on the way to Plymouth. The Rev Samuel Hood rescued him and gave him hospitality for the night. Samuel and Alexander were inspired by his stories of the sea and he offered to help them in the Navy. The Rev Samuel Hood and his wife would not allow any more sons to join the Navy as “they might be drowned”. Their third son, Arthur William became Vicar of Butleigh but died of fever in his 30’s. Another son was drowned in the local river Brue as a boy.

Samuel, older brother of Alexander Hood, 1st Viscount Bridport, entered the Royal Navy in 1741. He served part of his time as midshipman with George Brydges Rodney on the Ludlow and became a lieutenant in 1746. He had opportunities to see service in the North Sea during the War of the Austrian Succession.

In 1754, he was made commander of the sloop Jamaica and served on her at the North American station. In July 1756, while still on the North American station, he took command of the sloop HMS Lively.

At the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War in 1756, the navy was rapidly expanded which benefited Hood. Later that year Hood was promoted to Post Captain and given command of HMS Grafton. In 1757, while in temporary command of Antelope (50 guns), he drove a French ship ashore in Audierne Bay, and captured two privateers. His zeal attracted the favourable notice of the Admiralty and he was appointed to a ship of his own, Bideford.

In 1759, when captain of the Vestal (32), he captured the French Bellone (32) after a sharp action. During the war, his services were wholly in the Channel, and he was engaged under Rodney in 1759 in the Raid on Le Havre, destroying the vessels collected by the French to serve as transports in the proposed invasion of Britain.

He was appointed in Commander-in-Chief, North American Station in July 1767. He returned to England in October 1770. In 1778, he accepted a command which in the ordinary course would have terminated his active career, becoming Commissioner of the dockyard at Portsmouth and governor of the Naval Academy.

In 1778, on the occasion of the King’s visit to Portsmouth, Hood was made a baronet.

The war was deeply unpopular with much of the British public and navy. Many admirals had declined to serve under Lord Sandwich, the First Lord of the Admiralty. Admiral Rodney, who then commanded in the West Indies, had complained of a lack of proper support from his subordinates, whom he accused of disaffection. The Admiralty, anxious to secure the services of trustworthy flag officers, promoted Hood to rear-admiral on 26 September 1780, and sent him to the West Indies to act as second in command under Rodney, who knew him personally. He joined Rodney in January 1781 in his flagship Barfleur, and remained in the West Indies or on the coast of North America until the close of the American Revolutionary War.

The expectation that he would work harmoniously with Rodney was not entirely justified. Their correspondence shows that they were not on friendly terms; but Hood always did his duty, and he was so able that no question of removing him from the station ever arose. The unfortunate turn for the British taken by the campaign of 1781 was largely due to Rodney’s neglect of Hood’s advice.

When Rodney decided to return to Britain for the sake of his health in the autumn of 1781, Hood was ordered to take the bulk of the fleet to the North American coast during the hurricane months. Hood joined Admiral Thomas Graves in the unsuccessful effort to relieve the army at Yorktown, when the British fleet was driven off by the French Admiral, the Comte de Grasse, at the Battle of the Chesapeake.

When he returned to the West Indies, he was for a time in independent command owing to Rodney’s absence in England. De Grasse attacked the British islands of St Kitts and Nevis with a force much superior to Hood’s squadron. Hood made an unsuccessful attempt in January 1782 to save them from capture, with 22 ships to 29, and the series of bold movements by which he first turned the French out of their anchorage at Basseterre of St Kitts and then beat off their attacks, were one of the best accomplishments of any British admiral during the war.

On 12 April 1782 Hood took part in a British fleet under Rodney which defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet which was planning an invasion of Jamaica. The French commander De Grasse, who had been responsible for the victory at Chesapeake was captured and taken back to Britain as a prisoner.

Eventually Hood was ordered to chase and with his division of 12 ships he captured 4 ships at the Mona Passage on 19 April 1782 thus completing the defeat. While serving in the Caribbean Hood became acquainted with, and later became a mentor to Horatio Nelson who was a young frigate commander. Hood had been a friend of Nelson’s uncle Maurice Suckling. In 1782 Hood introduced Nelson to the Duke of Clarence, the future King William IV who was then a serving naval officer in New York.

Hood was made an Irish peer as Baron Hood of Catherington in September 1782. During the peace, he entered the British Parliament as Member for Westminster in the election of 1784 where he was a supporter of the government of William Pitt the Younger. In 1786 he became Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth holding that post until 1789. Promoted to vice-admiral in 1787, he was appointed to the Board of Admiralty under John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, brother of the Prime Minister, in July 1788. He became Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth again in June 1792.

Following the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War, Hood became Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet in February 1793. In August 1793 French royalists and other opponents of the revolution took over the town and invited Hood, whose fleet was blockading the city, to occupy the town. Hood, without time to request for instructions from the Admiralty in London, moved swiftly to take command of the port.

There were two main reasons for the British move. It was hoped that Toulon could be a centre of French resistance to Paris, and also to take possession of the French Mediterranean fleet of fifty eight warships, which lay in the harbour. It was hoped that depriving the French revolutionaries of their maritime resources would cripple the revolution. He occupied Toulon on the invitation of the French royalists, in co-operation with the Spaniards and Sardinians. In December of the same year, the allies, who did not work harmoniously together, were driven out, mainly by the generalship of Napoleon. Hood ordered the French fleet burned to prevent them falling back into the hands of the revolutionaries.

Hood then turned to the occupation of Corsica, which he had been invited to take in the name of the King of Britain by Pasquale Paoli, who had been leader of the Corsican Republic before it was subjugated by the French a quarter of a century previously. The island was for a short time added to the dominions of George III, chiefly by the exertions of the fleet and the co-operation of Paoli. While the occupation of Corsica was being effected, the French at Toulon had so far recovered that they were able to send a fleet to sea. Nelson was recorded as saying that Hood was “the best Officer, take him altogether, that England has to boast of”.)

In October, he was recalled to England in consequence of some misunderstanding with the admiralty or the ministry, which has never been explained. Richard Freeman, in his book, The Great Edwardian Naval Feud, explains his relief from command in a quote from Lord Esher’s journal. According to this journal, “… [Hood] wrote ‘a very temperate letter’ to the Admiralty in which he complained that he did not have enough ships to defend the Mediterranean.” As a result Hood was then recalled from the Mediterranean.

Samuel Hood was created Viscount Hood of Whitley, Warwickshire in 1796 with a pension of £2000 per year for life (about £300,000 a year in present (2010) terms). In 1796, he was also appointed Governor of the Greenwich Hospital, a position which he held until his death in 1816. He served as Tory Member of Parliament for Westminster from 1784 to 1788 and from 1790 to 1796, and was Member for Reigate between 1789 and 1790.

He died in Greenwich on 27 January 1816 and is buried in Greenwich Hospital Cemetery. A peerage of Great Britain was conferred on his wife, Susannah, as Baroness Hood of Catherington in 1795. Samuel Hood’s titles descended to his youngest son, Henry (1753–1836).

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Regency Personalities Series-Admiral Lord Amelius Beauclerk

Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

Admiral Lord Amelius Beauclerk
23 May 1771 – 10 December 1846

Amelius Beauclerk

Admiral Lord Amelius Beauclerk was born on 23 May 1771, the third son of Aubrey Beauclerk, 5th Duke of St Albans and his wife, the former Lady Catherine Ponsonby, daughter of William Ponsonby, 2nd Earl of Bessborough. He was baptised at St Marylebone Parish Church, London on 15 June 1771.

He was entered on the books of the cutter Jackal in June 1782, and in 1783 was appointed to Salisbury, bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral John Campbell on the Newfoundland station. Afterwards he served in the West Indies under Commodore Gardner, and returned to England in 1789 as acting Lieutenant of Europa. He was not confirmed as a Lieutenant until 21 September 1790, at the time of the Great Spanish Armament crisis.

In 1792 he went to the Mediterranean in the frigate Druid, and on 16 September 1793 was made captain by Lord Hood and appointed to the command of Nemesis (28 guns). In March 1794 he was transferred to Juno (32 guns), and attached to the squadron under Admiral Hotham, blockading Toulon. Juno took part in the action of 14 March 1795, which resulted in the capture of the French ships Ça Ira and Censeur, and was one of the squadron, under Commodore Taylor, which convoyed the homeward trade in the following autumn, when the Censeur was recaptured by the French off Cape St Vincent on 7 October 1796.

On his return to England, Lord Amelius was appointed to the frigate Dryad, of 44 guns and 251 men, and on the coast of Ireland, at the Action of 13 June 1796, captured the French frigate Proserpine, of 42 guns and 348 men, after a brilliant and well-managed action, in which Dryad lost only two killed and seven wounded, while Proserpine lost thirty killed and forty-five wounded. He also captured several privateers. In 1800 he was appointed to Fortunée (40 guns), employed in the Channel and in attendance on the King at Weymouth.

Over the next ten years he commanded HM Ships Majestic, Saturn, and Royal Oak (all 74 guns) in the English Channel, and in 1809 had charge of the amphibious landing of Lord Chatham’s army at Walcheren, and continued, during the operations on that coast, as second-in-command under Sir Richard Strachan.

On 1 August 1811 he was promoted to Rear-Admiral, but during that and the two following years he continued in the North Sea, stretching in 1813 as far as the North Cape in command of a small squadron on the look-out for the American Commodore Rogers. In 1814 he commanded in the Basque Roads, and conducted the negotiations for the local suspension of hostilities. On 12 August 1819 he was advanced to Vice-Admiral, and from 1824 to 1827 was Commander-in-Chief at Lisbon and on the coast of Portugal. He became a full Admiral on 22 July 1830, and was Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth from 1836 to 1839.

Beauclerk was a fine professional officer who benefited from his family connections to secure early promotion. Port Beauclerc, Point Amelius, Point St. Albans, Beauclerc Island, Beauclerc Peak and Amelius Island, all in Alaska, are named for him.

He died, unmarried, at his seat, Winchfield House, near Farnborough, Hampshire, on 10 December 1846.

Beauclerk became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1809, and was given the honorary rank of Colonel of Marines on 31 July 1810. He was appointed to the KCB on 2 January 1815, GCH on 29 March 1831, GCB on 4 August 1835, and First and Principal Naval Aide-de-Camp to King William IV on 4 August 1839. He was also the hereditary Lord of the Manor of Winchfield, Hampshire.

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Regency Personalities Series-Sir John Thomas Jones

Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

Sir John Thomas Jones
25 March 1783 – 26 February 1843

John Thomas Jones

Sir John Thomas Jones was eldest of five sons of John Jones, esq., general superintendent at Landguard Fort, Felixstowe, Suffolk, and of Cranmer Hall, Fakenham, Norfolk, by his wife Mary, daughter of John Roberts of the 29th foot. He was born at Landguard Fort on 25 March 1783. Sir Harry David Jones was his brother. He was educated at the grammar school at Ipswich, joined the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich in the spring of 1797, received a commission as second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 30 August 1798, and embarked in October for Gibraltar. Jones advised on improvements for Gibraltar’s fortifications including Parson’s Lodge Battery and Wellington Front. He was appointed adjutant of the corps, and remained at Gibraltar four years. While at Gibraltar he was employed on the defences of the north front and in constructing the famous galleries; he also studied seriously, and became a good French and Spanish scholar. He was promoted lieutenant on 14 September 1800 and in 1842 he returned to England. There he was employed on the eastern coast in constructing defence works to oppose the threatened invasion, and in the following year in throwing up field-works from Widford to Galleywood Common (known as the Chelmsford lines), to cover London on that side.

On 1 March 1805 Jones was promoted second captain, and soon after embarked at Portsmouth with the expedition under Sir James Craig. After some months’ cruising the troops were disembarked in July at Malta, where Jones did garrison duty till the autumn. He then accompanied the expedition to Naples, and was detached with the commanding engineer to Calabria to retrench a position at Sapri for covering a re-embarkation. From Naples the troops sailed for Sicily, and, on the dethronement of the king, garrisoned Messina and Melazzo. Jones was employed under Major Lefebure in constructing works of defence. In the spring of 1806 Jones reported, under confidential instructions from the king of Naples, on the forts, harbours, and military condition of Sicily. His work was appreciated by the Neapolitan government, and was commended by Sir John Moore. In June 1806 Jones embarked at Messina with a force under Sir John Stuart, which landed in the bay of St. Euphemia. He was present at the battle of Maida, and marched with an advanced corps under General Oswald to sweep off the French detachments between Monteleone and Reggio, and to reduce Scylla Castle. The castle was so ably defended that its capture required all the formalities of a siege. Jones directed the attack with much credit, and after the capture of the castle persuaded Stuart to retain and strengthen it instead of blowing it up. Jones carried out this work so successfully that it was held until February 1808, proving during that time an invincible bar to the invasion of Sicily. When it was reduced to ruins by the French, the garrison was withdrawn in boats, without the loss of a single man, by means of a covered gallery constructed by Jones. Jones always considered the retention of Scylla the most meritorious effort of his professional life. In December 1806 Jones returned to England, visiting Algiers on the way, and on 1 January 1807 was appointed adjutant at Woolwich (the headquarters) of the royal military artificers. The increasing demand of the war necessitated the augmentation of the local and independent companies of engineer workmen, and Jones was occupied till the following year in reorganising them into one regular corps.

In July 1808 Major Lefebure and Jones were selected to serve as the two assistant-commissioners under General Leith, appointed military and semi-diplomatic agent to the junta of the northern provinces of Spain. Jones was attached to the army of the Marquis de la Romana, and conceived a great affection for its commander. Towards the end of the year Leith was ordered to take command of a brigade and to select an officer to succeed him as commissioner. Leith offered to appoint Jones, but Jones declined, although the high rate of pay was tempting, on the ground that his youth and want of rank would deprive his advice of its proper weight, and he asked instead to join the army. Leith at once appointed him his acting aide-de-camp. Jones continued to act in this capacity until after the skirmish in front of Lugo, when he was ordered, as an engineer officer, to assist in blowing up the bridge over the Tamboya, and was employed with his own corps during the retreat to Corunna. On his arrival in England Jones resumed his staff appointment at Woolwich, and on 24 June 1809 was promoted first captain. On the 9th of the following month he was appointed brigade-major to the engineers under Brigadier-general Fyers, to accompany the expedition under the Earl of Chatham to Walcheren.

Jones acted throughout the operations in Zeeland as chief of the engineers’ staff, and in that capacity carried out all the arrangements for the attack of Rammekins and Flushing. After the capitulation of Flushing Jones remained until the defences had been repaired and strengthened, and then returned to England, where he was appointed to command the engineers in the northern district.

In March 1810 Jones was ordered to embark for Lisbon, where he was employed under Colonel (afterwards Sir) Richard Fletcher on the lines of Torres Vedras. In June Fletcher joined the headquarters of the army at Celerico, and Jones was appointed commanding engineer in the south of Portugal, and entrusted with the completion of the works to cover Lisbon from the threatened invasion of the French under Massena. The memoranda by Jones relative to these defences (printed for private circulation) form a most valuable military work, fully describing the various field-works forming the lines of Torres Vedras. All the arrangements for manning the works and placing the troops had been so well made by Jones that the several points were occupied as quickly and with as much regularity as if the troops had been re-entering their cantonments from a review.

On 17 November 1810 Jones was appointed brigade-major of engineers in the Peninsular, and was attached to the headquarters’ staff, the details of the engineers’ service in all parts of the Peninsular passing through his hands.

Jones held the appointment until May 1812, and was employed at all the sieges undertaken during that period. For his conduct during the operations against Ciudad Rodrigo he was particularly mentioned by Wellington in his despatches, and in consequence was gazetted brevet-major on 6 February 1812. At the siege of Badajoz Fletcher, the commanding engineer, was wounded, but at the express wish of Wellington retained his command, and the active duties therefore devolved upon Jones, his staff officer. In the assault of Fort Picuriaz Jones saved the life of Captain Holloway of the engineers, who had been shot down on the parapet and fell onto the fraise. For his exertions at the siege Jones was gazetted on 27 April 1812 brevet lieutenant-colonel, and he thereupon resigned his appointment as brigade-major.

When it was determined to carry on operations on the eastern coast of Spain, Jones was appointed commanding engineer under General Maitland, and sailed from Lisbon in the beginning of June. On the disembarkation of the troops at Alicante, Jones received an appointment on the staff as assistant quartermaster-general, there being already an engineer officer senior to himself in command of the engineers. Owing to differences between the commanders of the allied forces, Jones was sent on a special mission to Madrid, to explain to Wellington the position of affairs. Travelling by night and avoiding roads, Jones reached Madrid safely, and was warmly received by Wellington, who, sending instructions by a courier, kept Jones to accompany him to the north to the siege of Burgos. During the progress of that siege, Jones was instructed to signal to Wellington by holding up his hat when the arrangements for exploding a mine and making a lodgment were complete. As the signal was not acknowledged, Jones repeated it until the French perceived him, and their fire brought him down with a bullet through his ankle. He with difficulty rolled himself into the parallel, but he ordered the mine to be fired, and the operations entrusted to him were successfully carried out before he left the field. Jones remained in a state of delirium for ten days, and as soon as he could be moved Wellington sent him to Lisbon in the only spring wagon at headquarters. The sufferings of this two months’ journey severely tried his strength, and he remained in Lisbon until April 1813, when he was sent to England. Eighteen months of severe suffering followed. During this period he composed and published a volume entitled Journal of Sieges carried on by the Allies in Spain in 1810, 1811, and 1812. In this work he fearlessly exposed the deficiencies of the engineer service, which he attributed to the ignorance and military incapacity of the board of ordnance. These strictures naturally offended the dispensers of patronage. Wellington, however, although the book was published without his sanction, and sharply criticised his siege proceedings, praised it, and remained the author’s friend.

In 1814 Jones visited the Netherlands, examined the principal fortresses, and afterwards met Wellington at Paris. Wellington told him that he had appointed him, with Brigadier-general (afterwards Sir) Alexander Bryce and another engineer officer, to report on the system of defence for the new kingdom of the Netherlands. The commissioners arrived in Brussels 21 March 1815. On 4 June 1815 Jones was made a C.B. On the appointment of Wellington to the command in the Netherlands, Jones accompanied him round some of the principal points of defence. At the end of August the reports of the commission were taken to Paris by Bryce and Jones and submitted to Wellington, with whom all details were settled by March 1816, when the commission was broken up. Jones was then selected to be Wellington’s medium of communication with the Netherlands government for the furtherance of the objects of the report. In the previous December Jones, with Colonel Williamson of the artillery, acting as commissioners of the allied sovereigns, prevented the fortress of Charlemont from falling into the hands of the Prussians. The commissioners then took possession of Landrecy for the allies, and returned to Paris in January 1816.

In November 1816 a convention founded on the treaty of Paris was signed between England and Holland, empowering Wellington to dispose of a fund of six millions and a half in constructing defensive works for the protection of the Netherlands, and to delegate his powers to as many inspectors as he pleased. The duke named Jones to be sole inspector, and persevered in this choice in spite of strong pressure on behalf of a superior officer. Jones’s duty was to make periodical inspections of each fortress, to superintend the execution of the approved plans, sanction modifications, and check expenditure. Wellington generally made two inspections of some weeks annually, when he was always attended by Jones alone, and became very intimate with him. On the return to England of the army of occupation, Jones, who became a regimental lieutenant-colonel on 11 November 1816, was appointed to the command of the royal engineers and royal sappers and miners at Woolwich, and to the charge of the powder factories, while still acting as inspector in the Netherlands. In 1823 Jones was sent by Wellington to the Ionian Islands to confer with the high commissioner, Sir Thomas Maitland, respecting the defences of Corfu. His plans were approved and gradually carried out. On 27 May 1825 Jones was appointed aide-de-camp to the king, with the rank of colonel in the army. On 19 August 1830 Wellington sent him on a special mission to the Netherlands with a view to any military arrangements advisable on account of the recent revolution in France. At Ghent Jones heard of the rising in Brussels, went to the king of the Netherlands at the Hague, and at the king’s request joined the Dutch army and the Prince of Orange at Antwerp. By his advice the prince went to Brussels, where he had a good military position and sufficient force to maintain himself. Two hours after Jones had left Brussels for London to report on his mission the prince retired to the Hague, thus abandoning his advantages and determining the subsequent course of the revolution. On 30 September 1831 Jones was created a baronet for his services in the Netherlands. In congratulating him upon the honour conferred on him, Wellington suggested a castle with the word ‘Netherlands’ as an addition to his armorial bearings. From 1835 to 1838 Jones’s health compelled him to live in a southern climate. He was promoted major-general John Thomas Jones on 10 January 1837, and in 1838 he was made a K.C.B.

In the summer of 1839 Jones was requested by the master-general of the ordnance to revise and digest the projects of defence for British coasts and harbours, and in the spring of 1840 was a member of a commission upon the defences of the colonies. He next undertook at the request of government to lay down a general scheme of defence for Great Britain. In the beginning of October 1840 major-general John Thomas Jones was sent to Gibraltar to report on the defences of the fortress. Jones advised on improvements for Gibraltar’s fortifications including Parson’s Lodge Battery and Wellington Front. He remained there as major-general on the staff till June 1841, when he returned to England. His proposals for the improvement of the defences of Gibraltar were approved and gradually carried out. Jones advised on improvements such as those made to Parson’s Lodge Battery where his advice caused eight guns to be installed in 1842. Jones also devised that new batteries should be sighted high above the Gibraltar Harbour that could take advantage of the increased height of the rock. One of these “retired batteries” was named Jones’ Battery after him.
He died, after a day’s illness, on 25 Feb. 1843, at his residence, Pittville, Cheltenham.

According to the Dictionary of National Biography Jones may be ranked among the first military engineers of his day. He possessed talents of the highest order; great mathematical knowledge, coupled with sound judgment and deep reflection. He was present at six sieges, and at five of them acted as brigade-major, and his intimate knowledge of the details of these operations gives great value to his published works on them. His reputation as a military engineer was not confined to his own country. A statue by Mr. Behnes was erected to his memory in the south transept of St. Paul’s Cathedral by the officers of the corps of royal engineers.

On 20 April 1816 Jones married, in London, Catherine Maria, daughter of Effingham Lawrence of New York. He had three sons and a daughter. His eldest son, Sir Lawrence, was murdered by robbers on 7 November 1845 when travelling between Macri and Smyrna, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his brother Willoughby, who died in 1884, and whose eldest son, Lawrence, born in 1857, was the fourth baronet.

Jones was the author of a short account of Sir John Stuart’s campaign in Sicily, published in 1808; Journal of Sieges carried on by the Army under the Duke of Wellington in Spain between the years 1811 and 1814, 1814; Account of the War in Spain, Portugal, and the South of France from 1808 to 1814 inclusive, 1817. He also printed in 1829 for private circulation Memoranda relative to the Lines thrown up to cover Lisbon in 1810; these were afterwards published in the Professional Papers of the Corps of Royal Engineers. A third edition of the Journal of the Sieges was published in 1843, and edited by his brother, Sir Harry David Jones, who added some valuable information, and incorporated in this edition the memoranda on the lines of Torres Vedras. Jones’s Reports relating to the Re-establishment of the Fortresses in the Netherlands from 1814 to 1830 were also, by permission of the minister for war, edited by Sir Harry Jones, and printed for private circulation among the officers of the corps of royal engineers.

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Regency Personalities Series-John Pitt 2nd Earl of Chatham

Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

John Pitt 2nd Earl of Chatham
10 September 1756 – 24 September 1835

John Pitt

Born 10th September in Chatham Kent to William Pitt, Ist Earl of Chatham and one time Prime Minister, and Hester Grenville daughter of Richard Grenville and Countess Hester Temple.

General Pitt was a British Peer, and soldier. The oldest son of William and older brother to William Pitt the Younger, who when Prime Minister appointed John to the posts of First Lord of the Admiralty which many did not think him qualified for. He also served as Lord Privy Seal and Lord President of the Council.

In 1809 he led the Walcheren Campaign, failing and losing thousands of soldiers under his command. He later became Governor of Gibraltar from 1820 to 1835. Years of relative peace.

He died at his house in Charles Street, London, on 24 September 1835, aged 78.

Chatham married The Hon. Mary Elizabeth Townshend, daughter of the 1st Baron Sydney, on 10 July 1783. The couple had no children. Lady Chatham died on 21 May 1821. Following his death, the Earldom of Chatham became extinct.

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