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William Pitt Amherst, Earl Amherst of Arakan, diplomat and governor general 1835 (b in Eng Jan 1773; d there 1857).
Amherst, William Pitt, Earl Amherst of Arakan
William Pitt Amherst, Earl Amherst of Arakan, diplomat and governor general 1835 (b in Eng Jan 1773; d there 1857). The son of Lieutenant-General William Amherst and nephew and heir to Lord Jeffery AMHERST, self-styled first governor general of British North America, he served as British envoy to Naples (1809-11) and to Peking (1816-17) before being appointed governor general of India in 1823. Retiring from that post in 1828, he was gazetted governor general of Canada 1 April 1835 on the nomination of British Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel; but on the resignation of Peel's ministry on April 8 he immediately gave up the appointment, ending a term in that office distinguished only by its brevity.
