Charles Lawrence (1709-1760)
British military officer, Charles Lawrence was promoted to Major in the 45th Regiment at Louisbourg in 1747. He became Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia in 1753 and took part in the battle against the French presence in Nova Scotia by ordering an attack on Fort Beauséjour in June 1755. He then summoned to Halifax, on July 28, 1755, delegates from the Acadian regions. When they refused to swear an unconditional oath of allegiance to the King of Great Britain, he put them in jail. With the support of the Council of Nova Scotia, he orchestrated the expulsion of the Acadians, seeing to their dispersal across the North American continent and to measures to prevent them from returning. Thanks to the effectiveness of his strategies, he was promoted to Governor of Nova Scotia in 1756. In 1758, Lawrence commanded a brigade in a military expedition that took Louisbourg. Lawrence died in Halifax in October 1760 and will go down in history as the person responsible for the Deportation.
