Overview
As Secretary of State for America, Lord George Germain directed the British war effort, providing strategy and direction to the British military leaders serving in America. After the disastrous British loss at Yorktown, the Lord North government fell, and Germain was replaced.
Before the American Revolution, historians refer to Germain as Sackville. In 1770, George Sackville inherited an estate and title upon the condition that he change his name to Germain. Therefore, in the American Revolution, he was known as Germain and Sackville in the pre-1770 Seven Years War. His participation in the Battle of Minden is controversial as a result of not following orders to engage the Prussian enemy. While many historians believe that the cowardice charge was political motivated, the court martial conviction left a stain on his reputation. However, through perserverence, he regained the confidence of King George III and other senior leaders who appointed him as American Secretary with reponsibility for ending the American rebellion.
Diaries and Memoirs
Adams, Randolph G. The Papers of Lord George Germain: A brief description of the Stopford-Sackville papers now in the William L. Clements library. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan, 1928.
Brief Biographical Sketches
O’Shaughnessy, Andrew Jackson. The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire. Lewis Walpole Series in Eighteenth-Century Culture and History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013.
Biographies and Secondary Sources
A controversial figure, Brown writes a more positive view of Germain than either Mackesy or Valentine. Germain was caught up in fierce British politics between tories and whigs in the House of Commons and between King George II and the king in waiting, the future King George III. The politics greatly color contemporaries views on Germain.
Brown, Gerald Saxon. The American Secretary – The Colonial Policy of Lord George Germain, 1775-1778. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1963.
Mackesy, Piers. The Coward of Minden: The Affair of Lord George Sackville. London: Allen Lane, 1979.
Valentine, Alan. Lord George Germain. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962.
As Secretary of State for America, Lord George Germain directed the British war effort providing strategy and direction to the British military leaders serving in America. After the disastrous British loss at Yorktown, the Lord North government fell, and Germain was replaced.
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