Edward Boscawen

Admiral Edward Boscawen was one of the most effective British naval commanders of the Seven Years' War, and the officer whose victory at Lagos helped make 1759 the year that decided the war at sea. He was born at Tregothnan in Cornwall, the third son of the first Viscount Falmouth, and went to sea young, serving under Vernon at Porto Bello and Cartagena. His men called him Old Dreadnought, and he had a reputation for driving his ships hard and for taking more care of his crews' health than was usual. In 1755 he was sent to intercept French reinforcements bound for Canada and captured two ships off Newfoundland before war had been declared, an act that helped begin it. He commanded the naval half of the siege of Louisbourg in 1758, the fortress guarding the mouth of the St Lawrence, whose fall opened the route to Quebec. The following year, commanding in the Mediterranean, he caught the French Toulon fleet under La Clue attempting to slip through the Strait of Gibraltar and destroyed or captured five ships of the line at Lagos, pursuing them into neutral Portuguese waters to do it. Together with Hawke's victory at Quiberon Bay months later, it ended any French hope of invading Britain. He was also a member of the Board of Admiralty and signed the warrant for the execution of Admiral John Byng in 1757. He sat as member of parliament for Truro from 1742 until his death, though almost constant service kept him away. He died of a fever in 1761, aged forty-nine.

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