John Pitt is not one of the forgotten millions who left little or no trace on their journeys through life. He made his mark. Yet it is a mark that faded even before he died and could not match the contributions of the two William Pitts, his far more famous father and younger brother.
Yet in times of upheaval like that of the Napoleonic wars, history is made by the John Pitts and other “role players” as much as by the William Pitts, Wellingtons and Napoleons. It is John Pitt’s misfortune that the most notable event in his career has gone down as a tragic failure.
Jacqueline Reiter can make a fair claim to know more about John Pitt than anyone living, and probably more than most of the contemporaries that knew him during his relatively long life (from 1756 to 1835). Indeed, several years ago it was she who put some real meat on the rather thin bones of his Wikipedia profile.
And her biography fills all the promise of that knowledge. The Late Lord, The Life of John Pitt 2nd Earl of Chatham is a fascinating portrait of a man who was born into extraordinary circumstances and lived in extraordinary times, and yet often seems like an ordinary man picking his way hesitantly through a maze of political, bureaucratic and military conflicts.
Ordinary, because it would be easier for most of us to identify with him than with his strident, intense father or his impossibly hard-working, hard-drinking brother. When John Pitt failed, he was sometimes a victim of circumstance. Yet at other times, he just as clearly a victim of his own failings and his own lethargy, just like the rest of us.
He was born into a life of privilege, yet he struggled for much of his life with the debts left by his hopelessly insolvent father (and ran up more than a few himself). He and his wife loved each other, yet suffered later in life through her physical and then mental disabilities (clinical depression was far beyond the comprehension of eighteenth-century caregiving).
Yet through it all he was intelligent, thoughtful and capable of conceiving and adhering to a plan of action. Unfortunately, he did not seem to possess the instinct that allows political insiders to counter the attacks of those who take their own interests for the right course of action. Even when he was right, he did not always do a deft job of defending his policies.
And, not to put too fine a point on it, he was lazy. He was frequently late for meetings, and just as often failed to show the energy to push through needed reforms and ensure efficient organization. This led to frequent criticism in his posts as First Lord of the Admiralty and Master General of the Ordnance. Yet his dismissal as First Lord also owed a good deal to his inability to outflank a shrewd and ambitious political operator in Henry Dundas. William Pitt had made his brother First Lord, but in the cut and thrust of wartime politics, he saw Dundas as an invaluable ally and his brother as dispensable. The humiliation cut deep for John Pitt.
Late in life, he quietly did a much more efficient job as Governor of Gibraltar. But at the same time, he was an unhappy widower, ready to go home and leave it all behind. Jacqueline Reiter makes us feel all this.
Yet the fulcrum of the 2nd Lord Chatham’s career, and the dramatic core of his biography, is the infamous Walcheren campaign of 1809 (even in high school history, I recall a reference to this campaign that ended in disaster and disease). Trained as a soldier, he served in various military posts throughout his life, and played a prominent role in the Anglo-Russian Helder expedition to Holland in 1799.
He was commander of the army for the Walcheren campaign, an attempt to open a second front against the French in support of Austria. The frustrations of wind and weather, the dance of delay between the army and the navy, the hesitant advances and demoralizing setbacks are all skilfully depicted by the author. Even without historical hindsight, you can feel it lurching toward a miserable end.
Just as compelling is the author’s account of the subsequent enquiry. It becomes, in effect, a gripping courtroom drama. Chatham attempted a spirited defense of his own conduct, and did a reasonable job of making the case for the army’s efforts and against the very real failings of the navy. But even here, he made errors of timing and judgement that helped leave a cloud over his reputation.
And there are nagging questions about his own breadth of feeling, as when he had returned from the campaign and was engaged in shooting parties. “Perhaps Chatham occasionally devoted a thought to the sick arriving daily from Walcheren and overcrowding the military hospitals in Kent, Hampshire and Essex….If he did, he left no sign.”
He was quite simply a human being, born to a famous family, but without the special gifts that marked the towering figures of the era, for good or evil. Jacqueline Reiter does an exemplary job of bringing out that humanity, and putting it in the context of this tumultuous era. In doing so, she illuminates how history is also made by those who labored in the shadow of Napoleon, of Wellington, and of William Pitt. Highly recommended reading.
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Top reviews from other countries
d.arcadian, letterpress seller extraordinaire
Read it! It's worth it!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 6, 2017LynnBryant1803
This is one of the best historical biographies I’ve ever read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 22, 2017Eamonn OKeeffe
Masterful biography – highly recommended
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 7, 2017Rob Griffith
Much better than yet another Nelson or Wellington biography
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 10, 2018