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John Montagu (1718-1792), 4th Earl of Sandwich. Succeeded his grandfather to the Earldom in 1729.
Sandwich was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, and then spent some years travelling in Europe. His political career commenced when he was appointed a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty in 1744. In 1748 he became First Lord of the Admiralty in the government led by Henry Pelham, holding the post until 1751. He was appointed Master of Trinity House in 1749.
In 1763-65 Sandwich returned to power as Secretary of State under George Grenville. He was again briefly Secretary of State under Lord North in 1770-71 and then became First Lord of the Admiralty again, holding the office for eleven years. In this post "his conduct was as great a scandal to public as it had been all along to private morality. Throughout his long administration he rendered the business of the Admiralty subservient to the interests of his party, and employed the vast patronage of the office as an engine for bribery and political jobbery". He was held in part responsible for the inadequacies of the British Navy in the American War of Independence. He took a strong interest in the second and third voyages of James Cook to the Pacific. Cook named the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) after him in 1778.
Sandwich left the Admiralty in 1782 and largely retired from public life, spending most of his time at his country seat of Hinchingbrooke in Huntingdonshire.
References
Martelli, George.
Jemmy Twitcher : a life of the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, 1718-1792.
London: Jonathan Cape,
1962.
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