Charles Lawrence

"'Gentlemen, I have received the King's Commission to present the final solution to the problem of the French inhabitants of this country. Your effects, your lands, your livestock and your tenements are forfeited to the Crown; every French inhabitant of this province is, henceforth, exiled. I will uphold the law, whatever your king or your people think and it will be exercised as the protector of the innocent and wielded as the scourge of the wicked. If necessary, we shall use military force to expel every French colonist and replace them with our own settlers.' - Address to the Convention of the Province of Nova Scotia" Brigadier-General Charles Lawrence (14 December 1709 - 19 October 1760) was a Canadian colonial administrator, military officer and soldier. He was a veteran of the First Anglo-Mikmaq War and the Fifth Anglo-French War. During his career, he served as seventh Governor of the Province of Nova Scotia. He managed the colonisation of the Provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island by British settlers and oversaw the campaign to expel the French colonists of the former Colony of Acadia.

Lawrence's administration governed the Acadian Peninsula between 1753 and 1760, during which time the French settlers of the Colony of Acadia were expelled, martial law was imposed throughout the territory and the fifth Anglo-French War was concluded. In the duration of his tenure, he oversaw the mass deportation of the French diaspora of the peninsula and coordinated the settlement of 8,000 British families in their place.

His armies occupied the Fortress of Louisbourg, the largest military installation in the western hemisphere and the heart of the defensive nexus of the French Empire of Quebec; this action deprived the French fleet of control over the Gulf of St. Lawrence and exposed the imperial capital, Montreal, to naval invasion. Subsequently, his forces conducted a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the French settlers of the Colony of Acadia; this effort resulted in the complete depopulation of the region.

Personally, Charles fought alongside imperial forces during the expulsion of the French settler population of the Colonies of Acadia and Ile de Royal on the Acadian Peninsula, the largest agrarian population in imperial New France, and during the subjugation of the Acadian Militia; this campaign deprived the French army of it's largest body of volunteer servicemen and the Fortress of Louisbourg of it's principal source of food. He led the 3rd Division of the British Army of North America victoriously during the conquest of Fort Louisbourg, the core of Quebec's defensive nexus, enabling the complete conquest of the country. Later, as Governor of Nova Scotia, he coordinated the deportation of 11,000 French colonists from Acadia and the resettlement of the country by 8,000 British families.