When Robert Peel was appointed Under-Secretary for war and the colonies for Great Britain in 1810, in the middle of the greatest war it had seen, he was only twenty-two. On his appointment, he received a letter from his dean at Christ Church Oxford. “Work very hard and unremittingly,” it said. “Work, as I used to say sometimes, like a tiger, or like a dragon, if dragons work more and harder than tigers. Do not be afraid of killing yourself.”
The Napoleonic Wars were won by young men entrusted with incredible amounts of responsibility, and callow youths did work themselves to death as clerks in the offices of Whitehall. William Pitt the Younger died at the age of 46 after years of sickness, leached of his health by serving in the role of wartime prime minister for fully half his life. His departments were staffed and led by as many 20-year-olds as 60- and 70-year olds.
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