George Keppel, 3rd Earl of Albemarle

George Keppel commanded the expedition that took Havana in 1762 and drew the largest single share of prize money in British military history. He was a courtier's son, aide-de-camp to the Duke of Cumberland at Culloden and at Fontenoy, and rose through the peacetime army on connection rather than distinction - his appointment to the Cuban command owed a good deal to his family's standing with the Duke of Newcastle and to two brothers conveniently placed, one a commodore in the fleet and one a colonel in the landing force. The expedition itself was better conceived than that suggests. Spain had entered the war in 1762 on the French side, and Havana was the assembly point for the treasure fleets and the key to the Caribbean; taking it required arriving before the hurricane season and getting past the Morro fortress, which dominated the harbour entrance from solid rock. Pocock brought the fleet through the Old Bahama Channel, a passage considered unnavigable for a force that size, which bought surprise. Then the siege had to be dug through rock in midsummer, and disease did what the Spanish garrison could not: something over half the British force died, almost all of it from yellow fever and dysentery. The Morro was mined and stormed in July and the city capitulated in August. The prize was enormous - the treasure, the merchant shipping, and a fifth of the Spanish navy taken in harbour - and Albemarle's personal share was roughly a hundred and twenty thousand pounds, while a private soldier received about four. The disparity caused a public scandal. Havana was returned to Spain the following year at the Peace of Paris in exchange for Florida.

• Lived: 1724 CE – 1772 CE
• Nationality: British
• Roles: military, politician