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Humphrey Gilbert (born c. 1539—died September 1583, at sea near the Azores) was an English soldier and navigator who devised daring and farseeing projects of overseas colonization. Although he was brilliant and creative, his poor leadership was responsible for his failure to establish the first permanent English colony in North America. He succeeded, however, in annexing Newfoundland. The half brother of Sir Walter Raleigh and a cousin of Sir Richard Grenville, Gilbert studied navigation and...