William Dyott
William Dyott was a British Army officer and courtier who served in the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Having joined the 4th Regiment of Foot in 1781, he initially served in Ireland before moving to Nova Scotia where in 1788 he befriended Prince William Henry, the future William IV. Dyott undertook a series of staff appointments in England and Ireland until after the start of the French Revolutionary Wars when, promoted to lieutenant colonel, he took the 25th Regiment of Foot to the West Indies. In 1796 Dyott fought against Fédon's rebellion on Grenada, returning at the end of the year having lost the majority of his regiment to yellow fever.
After several more staff appointments Dyott took the 25th to serve in the liberation of French-occupied Egypt in 1801, arriving too late to participate in most of the campaign but seeing action at the siege of Alexandria. In the first years of the ensuing Napoleonic Wars Dyott worked as a staff officer in Ireland, and also served George III as an aide de camp. Promoted to major-general in 1809 Dyott was ordered to take command of a brigade in the Peninsular War, but his appointment was cancelled when the army was evacuated after the Battle of Corunna. Later in the year Dyott was appointed to a different brigade for the Walcheren Campaign. Quickly beset by fevers, the campaign stagnated. Dyott formed part of the garrison on Walcheren before his return to England in October.
Dyott declined to serve in the new Peninsular Army under Lord Wellington in 1810 and saw no further active service. He held staff appointments in England until his promotion to lieutenant-general in 1813. In retirement Dyott served as a deputy lieutenant and justice of the peace for Staffordshire and was active in politics as a Tory. From 1781 to 1845 Dyott had written a diary, and in 1907 these were published in two edited volumes. Lord Ponsonby describes him as "an honest, unreflecting, and unobservant man".
Early life
William Dyott was born on 17 April 1761, the second son of Richard Dyott of Freeford Hall and his wife Katherine née Herrick. Dyott's paternal family had lived near Lichfield since the reign of Elizabeth I, and several of his ancestors served as Member of Parliament for Lichfield. Dyott was educated at Clifford's School in Lichfield from the age of 5, later moving to Price's School when he around 8 before going on to Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Ashbourne at the age of 12. Dyott disliked this latter school, describing it in his diary as "such a school as fitted youth for no pursuit in life beyond a retail shop-board", and moved to Nottingham High School in 1775 where he spent the last four years of his education.Dyott then spent several years in idle leisure, mostly staying with his friend Nigel Gresley at Drakelow Hall. In 1781 Dyott joined the British Army. With the support of Henry Paget, Baron Paget, Dyott spoke to General Jeffery Amhurst, Baron Amherst, who on 20 February enrolled him in Lewis Lochée's private military academy in London. Dyott spent four months at the academy, during which he struck up a life-long friendship with the future General John Hodgson.
Military service
Early years
Dyott joined the British Army as an ensign in the 4th Regiment of Foot on 14 March 1781. The regiment was based in Ireland, and Dyott joined it at Armagh in August. His first military duties were mostly attending reviews and punishing deserters. He was subsequently promoted to lieutenant on 9 May 1782, serving in this period at Galway, Limerick, Cork, and Enniskillen. He was then placed on half pay towards the end of 1783, the American War of Independence having ended. He spent this subsequent period between Freeford, Bath, and London. Dyott returned to active service on 26 December 1784 and re-joined the 4th at Dublin, being appointed the regiment's adjutant on 3 April 1785.File:William IV by Sir Martin Archer Shee.jpg|thumb|Prince William Henry, then Duke of Clarence and St Andrews. Portrait of the Duke of Clarence by Martin Archer Shee, 1800
Towards the beginning of 1787 Dyott spent several months on leave as his father's health was worsening, with the elder Dyott dying on 2 January. In May the 4th was sent to serve in Nova Scotia, arriving there in July. Dyott met Captain Prince William Henry, who commanded the frigate HMS Andromeda, at Halifax in around July 1788. A life-long friendship formed between Dyott and the prince, with the two regularly drinking together and playing pranks on each other. Dyott spent the following two years stationed at Port Edward.
Dyott went on leave in December 1792 and returned to England to visit his family, arriving on 28 December. Around this time the British Army began to expand in preparation for the French Revolutionary Wars, and Dyott was employed with a recruiting party for the 4th at Lichfield. He was promoted to captain on 25 April 1793 and given command of a company in the 4th. Around this time he also took charge of the training of the Staffordshire Militia before it moved to serve at Plymouth, where Dyott joined it and for a while wore its uniform. In June Dyott was appointed brigade major to Major-General George Hotham, who commanded the Plymouth Military District.
On 19 May 1794 Dyott purchased his promotion to major, for the purpose of which he assisted in forming and then joined the 103rd Regiment of Foot at Devizes. The regiment travelled to Bristol in October, from where it sailed to Dublin and subsequently served at Clonmel. Dyott was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 18 February 1795. He was then appointed brigade major to General Lord George Lennox, the Governor of Plymouth, in May. Dyott lived with Lennox's family while serving at Plymouth.
In September the men of Dyott's regiment were transferred into other units and the 103rd was disbanded. Dyott then exchanged his commission into the 28th Regiment of Foot which was embarked at Portsmouth for service in the West Indies campaign. He relinquished his position with Lennox and joined the 28th there. One of the other regiments waiting there was the 25th Regiment of Foot, of which Lennox was colonel, and Dyott transferred to command it instead on 11 November.
French Revolutionary Wars
Fédon's rebellion
Having left Portsmouth the ships were initially caught up in Christian's storm and driven back. The fleet departed again on 9 December and between 14–24 December the ships were again dispersed by heavy gales. Dyott's ship continued the journey alone and reached Barbados on 11 February 1796, the first ship of the fleet to do so. From there the 25th was sent as reinforcements to Grenada on 1 March, where the battle against the insurgent Fédon's rebellion was ongoing. They arrived on 3 March. 100 men of the 25th, including Dyott, then joined the expeditionary force leaving St. George's to dislodge rebels from several strategic points that the British had recently abandoned. They left in the evening of 22 March and spent ten hours marching through the night. At 2 p.m. the following day they encountered some of the rebels. Dyott, who commanded the 25th and 200 men of the 9th Regiment of Foot, supported the attack of the Loyal Black Rangers that captured the position with minimal casualties. The force next planned to attack the strongpoint named Post Royal, but delayed the attack because the troops were heavily fatigued. Dyott wrote that "if we had been attacked I should have been cut to pieces, as it was impossible I could move".The British began to bombard Post Royal on 25 March, with the 25th garrisoning the rebel position captured earlier. Dyott did not participate in the assault later that day, but was unimpressed with the unorganised way in which the position was eventually taken. During the night of 26 March the rebels abandoned their other position, Pilot Hill, in the knowledge that the British were going to storm it. In the following day the 25th were positioned on a ridge in front of Post Royal, with Pilot Hill having been occupied. Dyott's position turned out to be very unhealthy for his troops, and in the following couple of months upwards of 300 men were lost while the force waited for reinforcements. By June these had arrived, and on 9 June the Post Royal troops marched out to rebellion leader Julien Fédon's main camp at Belvidere. The journey took them twenty-one hours, during which they skirmished with rebels in a route that, according to Dyott, "was literally up and down precipices, half-way up the leg in clay, and through a wood where I believe no human foot had ever before stepped".
Dyott was ordered to capture Mount St. John, the neighbouring hill to Mount Quaqua where Fédon's camp was, on 11 June. The rebels retreated to Quaqua as his force approached, and he set up camp on top of St. John. On the following day two deserters from Fédon told Dyott that morale was collapsing in the camp, and on 13 June Fédon proposed surrender if his officers could go to Guadeloupe. This was refused. The British then continued to wait around Quaqua, to Dyott's displeasure as his men began to be affected by sickness again. Dyott was then given command of an ad-hoc brigade, containing the 25th, 9th, and 8th Regiment of Foot, that was to form part of a flanking manoeuvre around Fédon's position. They planned to attack on 17 June but a lack of provisions forced them to abandon the attempt. One day's food and drink was subsequently supplied, and Dyott remonstrated with his commander Brigadier-General Alistair Campbell that they had to move quickly before the force was further diminished by sickness. They moved out in the early morning of 18 June and at 5 p.m. reached the first rebel outpost, which was captured as night fell.
Campbell and Dyott camped at the position overnight, during which part of the main force crawled close to Fédon's camp and surrounded the rebels. Upon realising their predicament at dawn Fédon and his men escaped by throwing themselves down the steep mountainsides, allowing the British to occupy Quaqua without a shot being fired; around 100 rebels were killed. Dyott's force left its camp in the early morning and advanced on another rebel outpost while being sniped at from the bush. This was captured by the force's light companies at 9 a.m., losing several men to Fédon's guerilla tactics. The final rebel outpost was captured by other troops at around noon, leaving Dyott's force to relax in several huts. He was again disappointed with the organisation of the operation, with little having been done to supply the men for more than the day of the attack.
With the majority of Fédon's force defeated there was little for the British to do, and most were withdrawn from the island. The 25th were left on Grenada, and Dyott learned to his disappointment that the regiment was to stay in the West Indies rather than return to Europe. Illness continued to be a problem for the regiment, and within four days of the final capture Dyott sent forty men to hospital. On 24 June Dyott was ordered back to St George's where yellow fever was rife. With his regiment having lost through sickness over 500 men, the remaining rank and file of the 25th were drafted into the 53rd Regiment of Foot. The surviving officers and sergeants were to return to England. They boarded ship on 12 July. Dyott himself underwent an attack of yellow fever as the ships reached Tortola, and after arriving at Plymouth on 20 September he was allowed to go ashore immediately.