Admiral of the Blue Edward Boscawen, PC was a British admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament for the borough of Truro, Cornwall, England. He is known principally for his various naval commands during the 18th century and the engagements that he won, including the siege of Louisburg in 1758 and Battle of Lagos in 1759. He is also remembered as the officer who signed the warrant authorising the execution of Admiral John Byng in 1757, for failing to engage the enemy at the Battle of Minorca (1756). In his political role, he served as a Member of Parliament for Truro from 1742 until his death although due to almost constant naval employment he seems not to have been particularly active. He also served as one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty on the Board of Admiralty from 1751 and as a member of the Privy Council from 1758 until his death in 1761.
Portrait of Edward Boscawen by Joshua Reynolds, circa 1825
The bombardment of Porto Bello, by Samuel Scott
Attack at Cartagena de Indias by the British in 1741, oil on canvas, 18th century
Battle of Cape Finisterre, 1747, by Samuel Scott
Siege of Louisbourg (1758)
The siege of Louisbourg was a pivotal operation of the Seven Years' War in 1758 that ended the French colonial era in Atlantic Canada and led to the subsequent British campaign to capture Quebec in 1759 and the remainder of French North America the following year.
Burning of the French ship Prudent and capture of Bienfaisant, during the siege of Louisbourg in 1758, Richard Paton
Major General Jeffery Amherst was tasked with the capture of the French Fortress of Louisbourg
English propaganda against New France and Louisbourg, 1755
The fall of Louisbourg brought a second wave of the Acadian expulsion, as the British engaged in a series of campaigns to deport the Acadians