Anson, George Anson, Baron

Related Category: British and Irish History: Biographies

1697–1762, British admiral. In his famous voyage (1740–44) around the world, Anson, in spite of shipwrecks and scurvy, inflicted great damage on Spanish shipping and returned to England with a rich prize. He was raised to the peerage after his popular naval victory (1747) off Cape Finisterre. Appointed then as first lord of the admiralty, he assisted William Pitt, Lord Chatham, in reorganizing naval administration.

See A Voyage round the World (comp. by R. Walter, rev. ed. 1911); biographies by M. V. Anson (1912) and S. W. C. Pack (1960); L. A. Wilcox, Anson's Voyage (1970).