SACKVILLE, GEORGE, I ST VISCOUNT ( I 716-1785 ) , generally remembered as Lord George Sackville or Lord George Germain, third son of Lionel Cranfield Sackville, 1st duke of Dor set, was born on Jan. 26, 1716. Educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Dublin, he was gazetted captain in 1737, and saw active service in the German campaign. Wounded in the charge of Cumberland's infantry column at Fontenoy, he was taken to the tent of King Louis XV. to have his wound dressed, and was soon released. He received rapid military promotion, and was gazetted major-general in 1755 and lieutenant-general in 5757. Meanwhile he filled the offices of first secretary to his father, the lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and Irish secretary of war, and sat in each of the two Houses of Commons at Westminster and Dub lin. In 1758, under the duke of Marlborough, he shared in the ineffective raid on Cancale Bay, and the troops, after a short so journ in the Isle of Wight, were sent to join the allied army of Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick in Germany. Marlborough died shortly after they landed, and Sackville succeeded him as com mander-in-chief of the British contingent. His haughty and domi neering temper estranged him both from his second-in-command, Lord Granby, and the commander-in-chief, Prince Ferdinand. This culminated on the day of Minden (August 1, 1758). The British
infantry, aided by some of the Hanoverians, had won a brilliant success, and every man in the army looked to the British cavalry to charge and to make it a decisive victory. But Sackville, in spite of repeated orders from Prince Ferdinand, sullenly refused to allow Granby's squadrons to advance. The crisis passed, and the victory remained an indecisive success. A court-martial in 176o pronounced him guilty of disobedience, and adjudged him "unfit to serve his Majesty in any military capacity whatsoever." In 1763 his name was restored to the list of the Privy Council. In 1769 he allied himself with Lord North. To this period belong the famous Junius Letters, with the authorship of which Sackville was erroneously credited. In 177o, under the terms of a will, he assumed the name of Germain. In 1775, having meantime taken an active part in politics, he became secretary of state for the colonies in the North cabinet, and he was practically the director of the war for the suppression of the revolt in the American col onies. Germain and the North cabinet misunderstood the situa tion and there was constant friction with the generals and the army in the theatre of war. Nevertheless he received a peerage. He died at Stoneland Lodge (Buckhurst Park) Sussex, on Aug. 26, 1785.