Admiral John Byng was born into an illustrious naval family in 1704. He qualified as a lieutenant at the age of 19 and was made post captain at 23. By the outbreak of the Seven Years War in 1756 he had become admiral of the blue. At the Battle of Minorca in 1756 it was alleged that he had failed to do his utmost to relieve the siege of the British garrison on Minorca. He was court-martialled and found guilty, although he was acquitted of personal cowardice. Despite pleas for clemency he was executed in 1757 on board the HMS Monarch in Portsmouth harbour. Voltaire referred to the incident in his novel Candide, creating the phrase "... pour encourager les autres". This book reappraises Byng's life and career in an attempt to discover whether he was a victim of injustice and the political situation at the time. There are black and white photographs of portraits of the various participants in Byng's story, extensive notes, a bibliography and a brief index.