Master and commander

Admiral George Anson played a critical role in the transformation of Britain’s navy in the mid-18th century. A hundred years earlier, the country that emerged from the Civil Wars possessed a fleet appropriate to a medium-sized European power. Yet on the eve of the Seven Years War (1756-1763), Britain was in a position to contend with France for global pre-eminence. Anson is best known for his circumnavigation of the globe, an epic journey that lasted almost four years: it was only the second time that a British naval expedition had achieved this feat, following Sir Francis Drake in the Elizabethan era. But it was in the corridors of power that Anson made his most enduring mark. Success