General Sir William Augustus Pitt KB, PC (c. 1728 – 29 December 1809) was a long-serving if undistinguished senior officer of the British Army whose sixty years of service covered several major wars and numerous postings as garrison or regiment commander.

He may have attended Winchester College as a schoolboy as his elder brother George is known to have done, but nothing is known for sure of his activities until 1744 when he received a commission to join the 10th Dragoons as a cornet.

[2] Pitt's wartime records are vague, but he gained distinction for his bravery in action and was severely wounded and taken prisoner at the Battle of Kloster Kampen in 1760.

In 1777 he was promoted to lieutenant general and in 1784 became commander of all the British forces in Ireland, a post he retained until 1791, when he was made a Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath.

[2] At the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793, Pitt was promoted to full general but his age and lack of military service precluded any active postings and in 1794 he was given the shore command of the Portsmouth defences, a post he retained until 1809 when he died at his estate, Highfield House, in Hampshire aged over eighty.