Earl of Chatham Earl of Chatham Earl of Chatham, in the County of Kent, was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1766 for William Pitt the Elder on his appointment as Lord Privy Seal, along with the subsidiary title Viscount Pitt, of Burton Pynsent in the County of Somerset, also in the Peerage of Great Britain. The first Earl's wife, the former Lady Hester Grenville, daughter of the 1st Countess Temple, had earlier been created Baroness Chatham, of Chatham in the County of Kent, also in the Peerage of Great Britain, in 1761, as at that stage
John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham an amphibious assault aimed at destroying the French fleet and fortifications around Antwerp and the island of Walcheren. Chatham commanded the largest expeditionary force Britain had yet fielded in the war. Despite early success in taking the town of Flushing, the campaign was an unmitigated disaster. The army made slow headway and the French immediately withdrew their fleet to Antwerp, a tactic that should have been foreseen by the politicians, admirals and generals planning the campaign from the start. While Chatham quarrelled with the naval commander, Sir Richard Strachan, as many as 8000 British troops succumbed to malaria. Chatham was