He gained the rank of captain in the Coldstream Guards and was dispatched with his regiment to Philadelphia, where he managed to accrue considerable debts during the American Revolution.

[4] In 1778, Jack became embroiled in an affair with the married Amelia Osborne, Marchioness of Carmarthen, daughter of Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness.

Sophia and the unnamed boy died in infancy; Augusta Byron went on to marry George Leigh.

Having never managed to take control of his spending – which continued to go on parties, theatre trips and courtesans - Jack died in August 1791 at Valenciennes, while still in his mid-thirties.

Though his son Lord Byron claimed many years later that his father had cut his own throat, there is no contemporary evidence to support this.