He held various military and political offices during his life, including Postmaster General, First Lord of the Admiralty, and Secretary of State for the Northern Department.

He was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge,[3] and spent some time travelling, initially going on the Grand Tour around Continental Europe before visiting the more unusual destinations of Greece, Turkey, and Egypt which were then part of the Ottoman Empire.

[5] On his return to England in 1739, Montagu took his seat in the House of Lords as a follower of the Duke of Bedford,[6] one of the wealthiest and most powerful politicians of the era.

The following year, Sandwich took a commission as a colonel in the British Army as part of the response to the Jacobite rising and the prospect of a French invasion.

In order to boost the relatively small British army, a number of units were raised by prominent figures, and Sandwich served in the regiment formed by Bedford.

[12] His service at Breda drew him to the attention of the influential Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, who lobbied for him to be given high office when he returned home.

Partly thanks to naval reforms pioneered by Anson and Sandwich, the Royal Navy enjoyed a series of successes and was able to blockade much of the French fleet in port.

In 1763 he returned to the Admiralty in the government of John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, and encouraged a major rebuilding programme for the Royal Navy.

While filling this office he took a leading part in the successful prosecution of the radical MP John Wilkes for obscene libel.

Although he had been allegedly associated with Wilkes in the notorious Hellfire Club (also known as the Monks of Medmenham), recent scholarship has suggested that the two had a more distant but cordial relationship than the friendship which was popularly portrayed at the time.

In 1775, Sandwich spoke vociferously in opposition to a plan for British America put forth by Benjamin Franklin and the Earl of Chatham.

[19] When Britain and France went to war, Sandwich advocated a strategy of concentrating the British fleet in European waters to deter invasion[20] in opposition to his colleague, Lord Germain, who pushed for more ships to be sent to North America.

Sandwich's problems increased when Spain entered the war on France's side in 1779 giving the Bourbon fleets a numerical advantage over the Royal Navy.

Prior to 1778 Keppel failed to persuade Sandwich to ignore technical difficulties and "copper sheath only a few ships"; he was later possibly unfairly to make political capital out of this in The London Magazine, March 1781.

He understood that coppering allowed the navy to stay at sea for much longer without the need for cleaning and repairs to the underwater hull, making it a very attractive, if expensive, proposition.

The King backed him for what was an expensive process for an untested technology, and in May 1779 he placed orders at the Portsmouth Docks for coppering a total 51 ships within a year.

The Royal Navy's newly coppered ships as yet untested were used successfully by Rodney in defeating the French at the Battle of the Saintes off Dominica in February 1782.

[22] By the time Sandwich's administration ended, he would take full credit for coppering the fleet as one of his great achievements when defending his record in office in January 1782.

[25] According to several sources, Sandwich was unable to provide adequately and permanently for his mistress and their children; she therefore encouraged the suit of Captain James Hackman (who in March 1779 exchanged the army for the clergy).

[citation needed] In April 1779, Ray was killed by a shot to the head in the foyer of the Royal Opera House (Covent Garden) at the hands of Hackman, Rector of Wiveton.

[citation needed] Sandwich was buried in All Saints' Church in Barnwell, Northamptonshire, of which only the chancel survives, kept to preserve the Montagu tombs.

Despite holding a number of important posts during his career, Sandwich's incompetence and corruption were legendary, inspiring the saying: "Seldom has any man held so many offices and accomplished so little.

[32] Lord Sandwich was a very conversant gambler, the story goes, and he did not take the time to have a meal during his long hours playing at the card table.

[39][full citation needed] He also met the young Ra'iatean Omai, whom Cook had brought to Europe, and took him to his country estate for a week, presenting him with a suit of armour.