Andrew Rollo, 5th Lord Rollo: Difference between revisions
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Lord Andrew Rollo, (November 18 1703 - Leicester, June 20 1765) was an Scottish army commander in Canada and Dominica during the Seven Years' War, who led the British land forces in the capture of Dominica on June 6 1761.
Lord Rollo, of Duncrub in the County of Perth, is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. Andrew Rollo was the 5th Baron Rollo, son of Robert Rollo and Mary Rollo.
He married on April 24 1727 with Catherine Murray (died July 28 1763) and had 2 children
- Anna Rollo (1729-1746)
- John Rollo (1736-1762)
He remarried on February 16 1765 with Elizabeth Moray and died 4 months later.
During the War of the Austrian Succession he fought for the British at the Battle of Dettingen in 1743, and by 1758 he commanded the British 22nd Regiment of Foot.
During the Seven Years' War, he was fighting since 1757 for the British in the Americas . He saw action in New York, Cape Breton Island, Sorel and Montreal. He led the capture of Prince Edward Island in 1758 and supervised the deportation of the French there. A bay on the island is still named after him. In 1760 he was raised to the rank of brigadier general.
On 3 May 1761 he sailed with his regiment from New York to the West Indies where he commanded the land forces at the attack on the French settlement of Roseau on 6 June, which he took with a force of only 2,500 men. After the capture he was made Commander-in-Chief of Dominica before the island was definitly ceded to Britain by the terms of the Treaty of Paris in 1763. During this period he took a prominent part in the British capture of Martinique and in the British expedition against Cuba in 1762. However, his health was severely affected by the climate, and he returned to England in 1762, dying at Leicester in 1765.
As his only son had died before him, he was succeeded by his brother John Rollo.
On Dominica, his name was given to Rollo's Head which had been called Pointe Ronde by the French, but the French name is still more used today. His name was also given to Rollo Street in what was to be the British capital of Dominica at Portsmouth and this street name still survives.