William Pitt the Younger

Biography

William Pitt was born in 1759, the son of the former prime minister William Pitt the Elder. Taught at home because of poor health, he entered Pembroke College, Cambridge, at the age of fourteen and graduated in 1776. After losing a contest for the Cambridge University seat in 1780, he entered the Commons in January 1781 and in 1782 became Chancellor of the Exchequer under Lord Shelburne.

George III made him prime minister in December 1783, at 24 the youngest ever. He won a large majority at the 1784 general election, and his India Act of that year placed the East India Company under a government Board of Control. He was regarded as a capable, reforming administrator who brought in a new generation of officials.

His later years in office were dominated by the wars with revolutionary and Napoleonic France, which he paid for with higher taxes while cracking down on radicalism at home. To counter Irish support for France he carried the Acts of Union 1800, but he failed to secure Catholic emancipation and left office in March 1801. He became prime minister again in 1804 and died in office in January 1806, having served almost nineteen years in all.