{{Short description|British Army general (c. 1728–1809)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}} {{Use British English|date=January 2017}} {{Infobox military person | honorific_prefix = General The Right Honourable | name = Sir William Augustus Pitt | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KB}} | birth_date = {{circa}} 1728 | death_date = 29 December 1809 | birth_place = | death_place = Highfield Park, Hampshire | nickname = | allegiance = {{flagcountry|Kingdom of Great Britain}} | service_years = 1744 to 1809 | rank = General | branch = British Army | commands = | unit = | battles = {{tree list}} * Seven Years' War ** Battle of Kloster Kampen * French Revolutionary Wars * Napoleonic Wars {{tree list/end}} | other_work = | awards = Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath }} General '''Sir William Augustus Pitt''' KB PC ({{circa}} 1728 – 29 December 1809) was a long-serving if undistinguished senior officer of the British Army whose sixty years of service covered several major wars and numerous postings as garrison or regiment commander. He served as MP between 1754 and 1761. He came from a notable political family: his father was also an MP and his elder brother George Pitt became Baron Rivers.
==Military career== Pitt was born in approximately 1728, the sixth but second surviving son<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=PmwBAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA347 Anecdotes of the life of the Right Hon. William Pitt, Volume 3 By John Almon]</ref> of George Pitt, MP for Wareham and his wife Mary Louisa. His date of birth has not been ascertained, and little information is available about his early life. He may have attended Winchester College as a schoolboy as his elder brother George is known to have done, but nothing is known for sure of his activities until 1744 when he received a commission to join the 10th Dragoons as a cornet. In the Dragoons Pitt registered solid if unspectacular service and was not engaged on active service until the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in 1756.<ref name="ODNB">[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/22328/22340?docPos=5 Pitt, George], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', G. F. R. Barker, Retrieved 28 November 2007</ref>
Pitt's wartime records are vague, but he gained distinction for his bravery in action and was severely wounded and taken prisoner at the Battle of Kloster Kampen in 1760. Released on parole, Pitt returned to his regiment at the war's conclusion and was made a full colonel.<ref name="ODNB"/> Between 1754 and 1761 Pitt had been the Member of Parliament for Wareham, a Dorset constituency with approximately 500 voters. He lost his seat whilst a prisoner in France and did not enter politics again, even after his brother's elevation to the House of Lords. In 1763 Pitt married Mary Howe, the daughter of Emanuel Howe, 2nd Viscount Howe. They had no children.<ref name="ODNB"/>
In 1770 Pitt was promoted to major-general while maintaining the colonelcy of the 12th Dragoons. His forces were not deployed during the American Revolutionary War and in 1775 he transferred to be Colonel to the 3rd Regiment of Horse (Carabiniers), again not seeing any action. In 1777 he was promoted to lieutenant general and in 1784 became commander of all the British forces in Ireland, a post he retained until 1791, when he was made a Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath.<ref name="ODNB"/> At the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793, Pitt was promoted to full general but his age and lack of military service precluded any active postings and in 1794 he was given the shore command of the Portsmouth defences, a post he retained until 1809 when he died at his estate, Highfield House, in Hampshire aged over eighty.<ref name="ODNB"/> Despite his relatively uneventful service, Pitt continued to exert influence at Army headquarters throughout his life.
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==References== *{{cite ODNB|title=Pitt, George|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/22340|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/22328/22340?docPos=5}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|gb}} {{succession box|title=Member of Parliament for Wareham | with = Henry Drax 1754–1755<br/>Edward Drax 1755–1761|before=Robert Banks Hodgkinson<br/>Henry Drax|after=Thomas Erle Drax<br/>John Pitt|years=1754–1761}} {{s-mil}} {{succession box |before=Benjamin Carpenter|title=Colonel of the 12th Regiment of Dragoons|after=William Keppel|years=1770–1775}} {{succession box | before=Edward Harvey | title=Colonel of the 3rd Regiment of Horse (Carabiniers) | years=1775–1780 | after=Sir John Irwin}} {{succession box|before=John Mordaunt|title=Colonel of the 10th Regiment of Dragoons|after=The Prince of Wales|years=1780–1796}} {{succession box|title=Commander-in-Chief, Ireland|before=John Burgoyne|after=George Warde|years=1784–1791}} {{succession box|title=Governor of Portsmouth|before=The Earl of Pembroke|after=Henry Edward Fox|years=1794–1810}} {{succession box|before=Sir George Howard|title=Colonel of the 1st King's Dragoon Guards|years=1796–1809|after=The Lord Heathfield}} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitt, William Augustus}} Category:1720s births Category:1809 deaths Category:1st King's Dragoon Guards officers Category:10th Royal Hussars officers Category:12th Royal Lancers officers Category:British Army generals Category:British Army personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars Category:British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Category:British Army personnel of the Seven Years' War Category:British MPs 1754–1761 Category:Carabiniers (6th Dragoon Guards) officers Category:Knights Companion of the Order of the Bath Category:Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Wareham Category:Members of the Privy Council of Ireland William Augustus