Past Prime Ministers
NicknameThe Doctor
Born 30 May 1757, Holborn, London
Died 15 February 1844, London, buried Mortlake, Surrey
Dates in office 17 March 1801 - 10 May 1804
Political party Tory
Major acts
Treaty of Amiens 1802 - temporarily ended hostilities between UK and France.
Interesting facts
Son of The Elder Pitt’s Physician Anthony Addington
Henry Addington 1st Viscount Sidmouth
1801 - 1804
“In youth, the absence of pleasure is pain, in old age the absence of pain is pleasure.”
The son of a doctor, Henry Addington was the first middle-class prime minister, holding office from 1801 to 1804. Having served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1789, Addington became PM when King George III rejected Pitt’s Emancipation of Catholics Bill, forcing his resignation.
Addington enjoyed royal favour because he had treated George III as a doctor during one of his bouts of madness.
Addington’s ministry was most notable for the negotiation of the Treaty of Amiens of 1802, in which the government agreed to an unfavourable peace with France.
It quickly broke down, and Addington could not persuade Pitt to support him as war loomed on the continent. With Napoleon’s forces readying themselves for an invasion of Britain, Addington resigned.
A notably poor orator, Addington continued to serve under Pitt, and was later elevated to the House of Lords as Viscount Sidmouth. He went on to hold office in the governments of Grenville and Lord Liverpool.