| Invasion of Dominica | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theSeven Years' War | |||||||
 A view of the British attack on Roseau, 6 June 1761, as drawn byArchibald Campbell, (Royal Engineers). | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Great Britain |  France | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Lord Rollo SirJames Douglas | Louis Robert de la Touche de Longpré (POW) | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 4 ships of the line 2 frigates | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 8 killed or wounded[1] | Unknown | ||||||
TheInvasion of Dominica was a British military expedition to capture the Caribbean island ofDominica in June 1761, as part of theSeven Years' War.
By the end of 1760, theconquest of Canada was completed and a great number of British troops were left idle in North America.
As early as January 1761,William Pitt had informedAmherst that some of his troops would be required in the autumn for the conquest ofDominica,Saint Lucia andMartinique. Amherst had to immediately send 2,000 men toGuadeloupe, which was already in British hands since theBritish expedition against Guadeloupe in 1759, where he would concert with the governor of the island the means of taking Dominica and Saint Lucia. Furthermore, Amherst had to despatch another 6,000 men later in the year for the capture of Martinique.
In the first days of June 1761, transports from America began to drop singly into Guadeloupe, the fleet having been dispersed by a storm. By June 3, four ships had arrived, together withLord Rollo, who had been appointed by Amherst to take the command.
On June 4, the whole of these British ships, together with one ship more from Guadeloupe itself, made sail under escort of the squadron ofSirJames Douglas, the admiral on theLeeward Islands station, to beat back against the trade wind to Dominica. The force consisted of:
The landing consisted of Colonel Rollo, the Brigadier-General in America, in command of the troops, and Commodore Douglas, Commander-in-Chief at the Leeward Islands, in command of the four ships of the line,Montague,Sutherland,Belliqueux, his flag ship theDublin, and two frigates.[2]
On June 6 by noon, the British force had arrived beforeRoseau, where the inhabitants were summoned to surrender. The French replied by manning their batteries and other defences, which included four separate lines of entrenchments, ranged one above another. Rollo landed his men and entered the town. Fearing that the French might be reinforced in the night, he resolved, though it was already late, to storm the entrenchments immediately. He attacked and drove out the French in confusion with trifling loss to himself. The French commander and his second were both taken prisoners. After this engagement, resistance ceased.
On June 7, Dominica swore allegiance to KingGeorge III.
Unlike Guadeloupe and Martinique, the 1763Treaty of Paris did not return Dominica to France. The Frenchcaptured and held Dominica island and France during theAmerican War of Independence between 1778 and 1783, after which it was returned to British control. It remained in British hands until its independence in 1978.
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