British admiral, victorious commander of the Battle of the Saintes, fought off of the north coast of Dominica. George Brydges Rodney was born in London in February 1719 and entered the navy in 1732 at the age of 13. He rose quickly through the ranks serving mostly in Newfoundland, along the Canadian coast and defending the North American colonies from the French. In 1761 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Leeward Islands station where in 1762 he led the capture of Martinique, St. Lucia and Grenada. In 1771 he was made Commander-in-Chief of Jamaica and from 1779 he again served in the Leeward Islands. Coming out from England with a fleet in December 1781 he waited in St. Lucia to keep track of the French fleet anchored at Martinique under the command of Admiral Compte de Grasse. As the French set sail for an intended attack on Jamaica, Rodney gave chase and cornered the fleet off Dominica on 12 April 1782. A sudden change in the wind off Capuchin Point gave him a chance to 'break the line' of French ships and he scored a major victory, seven ships and De Grasse himself being captured as well as many other vessels damaged. In England he was raised to the peerage as Baron Rodney and given a pension, dying in 1792. In Jamaica a memorial statue covered by a huge cupola was erected at the center of Spanish Town in his honour. In Dominica a street in Portsmouth was named after him, (Rodney Street, also known as 'La Rue General') and a point on the west coast, known to the French as Point Tarreau, was renamed Rodney's Rock. The victory at the Battle of the Saintes changed the fate of Dominica, because at the Treaty of Versailles (1783) Dominica was handed back to the British. Had Rodney failed, Dominica would probably have remained French.