He was born on 12 April 1814 in London, the younger son of Horace Beckford and his wife Frances, and was baptised on 11 May at St George's, Hanover Square.
[1] On 27 February 1830, Pitt (as he now was) bought a cornetcy in the Royal Horse Guards vacated by Viscount Fordwich.
[6][7] He retired from the Army on 21 April 1854,[8] having been forced to sell his commission due to his gambling and horse-racing debts.
He then spent a number of years in hiding from his creditors, living at Soval on the Isle of Lewis and then from 1858 at Kilninver.
[10] His estates were inherited by a second cousin, Augustus Lane-Fox, who adopted the surname of Pitt Rivers/Pitt-Rivers in consequence.