MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE DEAN PITT, K.H.

Otago Witness, Issue 2233, 17 December 1896, Page 6

MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE DEAN PITT, K.H.

iMIfeAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE DEAN «TO PITT, K.H., was born in 1780. He :|f(4|!|\ entered the army in 1805, and ~^^ T ~ received rapid promotion, being appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the 80th Regiment in 1822. He saw much service in the West Indies, and the Peninsula War, from 1811 to 1814. He was present at the Siege of Badajoz when Colonel Grey, the father of Sir George Grey, was killed. Soon after his return to England he received the appointment of an inspecting field officer. Having received the appointment of Commander of Forces in New Zealand, he sailed for Auckland in the Minerva with his wife and large family, and arrived there on October 8, 1847. He was received with all the military pomp and display* that the young colony could at that time so well afford. As an amusing incident, it may be mentioned that General Pitt took up his quarters in what had previously been a wellknown hotel. His orderly's shako touched the eaves of the house. The name of the hotel and its proprietor had certainly been painted out, but unobliterated, remained an index finger pointing round the corner, and the conspicuous words, To the -Tap. In January, 1848, he was appointed a member of the Executive Council, and, in February, under the Charter of 1846, he "was appointed Lieutenant>Governor of the Province of New Ulster — that is, of the whole of the North Island with the exception of Wellington. The duties of this office lay in administering the Government of the province in the absence of Sir George Grey, but he was called upon to transact little business beyond the issue of a few proclamations. For two years he suffered from continuous illhealth, which eventuated in his death on the January 8, 1851. He lies in the Auckland cemetery, and a handsome marble tablet was erected to his memory in old St. Paul's Church. • • •