Footnotes

Field-marshal Baron Jeffrey Amherst (1717-1778) was page to his father's neighbour, the Duke of Dorset at Knole in Kent. The Duke procured Amherst an ensigncy in the Guards in 1731 and later secured him the position of aide-de-camp to General Ligonier in Germany. He served with distinction and was passed on to the Duke of Cumberland's staff being present at Lauffeld and Hastenbeck. Rapidly promoted to lieutenant-colonel of the 15th regiment in 1756, he was further promoted to major-general by William Pitt in 1750 and given command of the expedition destined for North America. By September 1760 Amherst had achieved the surrender of Montreal and was appointed governor-general of British North America. The following year he received the thanks of parliament, and was made a knight of the Bath. He returned to England in 1763 and was received as the conqueror of Canada. In 1768 he was made governor of Virginia, and was given the colonelcy of the 3rd as well as the 60th regiment. In 1770 he became governor of Guernsey and in 1772 lieutenant-general of Ordnance, and though only a lieutenant-general, officiating commander-in-chief of the forces. His support of the American War endeared him to the King, who made him in 1776 Lord Amherst, in 1778 a general, in 1779 colonel of the 2nd Horse Grenadiers, transferring him to the colonelcy of the 2nd Horse Guards in 1782. In 1795 he was induced to resign as commander-in-chief in favour of the Duke of York and on the insistence of the King was made field-marshal. He died at Montreal, his seat in Kent, on 3 August the following year. Amherst's greatest glory is to have conquered Canada; and if much of that glory belongs to Pitt and Wolfe, neither Pitt's combinations nor Wolfe's valour would have been effectual without Amherst's steady purpose and unflinching determination

Offered with a folder of biographical material relating to the waistcoat and the 1760 Amherst Campaign