John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham General John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, (9 October 1756 – 24 September 1835) was a British soldier and politician. He is best known for commanding the disastrous Walcheren Campaign of 1809. Chatham was the eldest son of William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham. He was two and a half years older than his famous brother William Pitt the Younger, the future prime minister. Chatham joined the army as an ensign in the 47th Regiment of Foot on 14 March 1774. He served as aide-de-camp to General Guy Carleton in Quebec, but resigned his
The Death of the Earl of Chatham of the Spanish Armada made by Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom. Chatham's imperial vision of the British Empire resting on commercial expansion via the sea and his collapsing beneath the depiction of England's greatest naval victory are connected and symbolic. Copley also shows Lord Mansfield, one of Chatham's enemies, seated in indifference. Copley rented out a private room to exhibit the painting, charging for admission. He also made money from the painting from prints of it, marketed by John Boydell. The Death of the Earl of Chatham The Death of the Earl of Chatham is the title of a 1781 oil-on-canvas painting